Book Reviews

THE TOTEM AND THE TRICOLOUR. A Short History of New Caledonia since 1774.

By Martyn Lyons, NSW University Press, 1986.

Reviewed by Stewart Firth TO READ the upbeat media releases of Gaston Flosse, the French Min ister for the South Pacific, is to gain the impression that French rule in New Caledonia has been uniquely beneficent, and that the territory is a model of multi racial harmony. Then why are there still 5700 French military personnel in New Caledonia?

One picture is painted by Flosse and other agencies of the French public rela tions machine cranked into gear since Rainbow Warrior. Another filters out from the FLNKS and their sympathisers else where in the region.

There were German, Australian, Brit ish and Anglo-French equivalents of the indignities imposed on the Kanaks in New Caledonia special laws designed to keep the Islanders in their place but it was only in New Caledonia that Melanesian people were restricted to reserves repre senting about one-tenth of the mainland.

The outnumbering of indigenous Fiji ans by Indians was an unintended conse quence of a policy meant to protect and preserve the Fijian way of life. But in New Caledonia, uniquely in Melanesia, the co lonial power encouraged the outnumber ing of the Melanesians as a means of thwarting independence.

The Totem and the Tricolour is con cise, well-written and contains new infor mation based on research in the Archives Nationales, but unfortunately it is not the short history of New Caledonia we have been waiting for. Marred throughout by errors of fact, spelling mistakes, ignorance of other scholarly work in the area and a lack of familiarity with New Caledonia it self, this book cannot be accepted as authoritative.

To take one example: on the issue of de population, the author is emphatic that the number of Kanaks fell from about 42,000 in 1887 to 28,000 in 1901. In fact the so called census of 1887 was wildly inaccur ate and cannot be relied upon. The Kanak population might well have declined as other Pacific island populations did in the late 19th century.

What, then, are we to make of a book about New Caledonia in which the names of President Mitterrand and Eloi Ma choro are consistently misspelled, even in the index? And whose author does not seem to know about the work of Kerry Howe, Bronwen Douglas, Alban Bensa and Marie-Joseph Dubois?

The answer can only be read with cau tion while awaiting something worthy of the subject. □