Better bargain

The Journal of Pacific History, Vol Twenty-Four, No. 1, 1989. Various contributors. Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia. $A13.

Reviewed by Norman Douglas

WHAT can one say about the JPH, as most of its contributors or correspondents know it, that has not already been said, if not neces sarily in the columns of this magazine? It is a survivor, having endured for over twenty years, albeit not without a crisis or two along the way, and in the academic world that alone says some thing about its worth.

Not all that much from outside the Pacific region has actually appeared in the JPH, however, and its editorial board and list of correspondents consist almost entirely of scholars not all of them historians who have made the Pacific Islands their academic speciality.

The current volume of 132 pages con tains five long research articles on sub jects ranging from the pawpaw’s secret history (Robert Langdon), to Chief Jus tice in Tonga (Elizabeth Wood-Ellen), to Franciscan missionaries in the Sepik (Stephen Duggan). A section of notes and documents looks at Marching Rule in Solomon Islands, Jack Hides in the Kewa area of Papua New Guinea, and lists the archives of Augustinian Recol lects who worked in the Marianas from 1843 to 1904.

An article on current developments deals with the Vanuatu elections of 1987 (well, it does take some time for academic research to appear in print), and the extensive book reviews, an ex tremely valuable part of this publication, cover eight recently released titles. Of these, the most interesting is Peter Hem

penstall’s deservedly generous descrip

tion of Upon a Stone Altar by David Hanlon, a history of Pohnpei to 1890 which recently won the American Ethno history Association’s award for the best publication of the year.

So your SAI3 can still buy some value in these tough times. Even better, an advertisement on page 132 announces that, in the interests of conserving space, the JPH is remaindering back issues from as little as $A7.50 each if bought in 10-volume lots. Show me a better bar gain than that. □