Book Review

SAMOA: Nineteen Years in Polynesia By George Turner; Western Samoa Historical Trust and Commercial Printers,

Apia. Susii.So

Reviewed by Joseph Theroux

/ * m m ISTAKES,” said Samoa’s |U| first anthropologist, Augus ■Wß tin Kramer, “are particu larly unavoidable in Samoa.”

This should be the epigraph cautioning readers opening books that claim to ex plicate this Polynesian group, which has baffled administrators, teachers, diplo mats, businessmen, sailors and mission aries alike. I have yet to see a book on the subject that did not have its share of er rors, or one that doesn’t rehash old sub jects. It’s a pleasant surprise, then, to come across something besides the anecdotal travel book or the happy-talk history.

Yet George Turner’s book is not at all new. He published it in 1861, during a visit to Britain from his labours in Samoa for the London Missionary Society.

Misini Tana, as he was known to the Samoans, was originally sent to Tanna in the (then) New Hebrides, but was chased out by the inhabitants who had recently killed his brother missionary John Wil liams. He was then reassigned to Samoa, took up residence about 1841 and set about learning the language. He was soon giving sermons in Samoan, instructing his few converts in the mysteries of the New Tes tament and in 1844, helped set up the Sa moan Mission Seminary (now the Malua Theological College). There he taught scripture exposition, practical theology, scripture history, writing and composi tion, natural philosophy and “the ele ments of the English language”.

Like the other men with whom he worked, Turner contributed to Samoan society in a positive way. His accounts, with those of Stair and Williams and with George Pratt’s Grammar and Dictionary of the Samoan Language, defy the critics who complain that the missionaries did little more than impose restrictions on their flocks.

The Historical Trust and Commercial Printers deserve a vote of thanks for bring ing this and other books into print, and at reasonable prices. The larger reprint houses justify their inflated costs on the grounds that their market is small, but the presses in Papakura and Apia have shown it’s possible. However, a certain parochi alism creeps in when chapters not relating to Samoa are chopped out. The fine edi tion of The Cyclopedia of Samoa brought out by Commercial Printers was marred when sections on Tonga and Tahiti were removed. Turner’s book also loses some chapters. No doubt. . . but if the editions sells out, the publisher will perhaps be persuaded to issue the complete text. □