DAYDAWN IN PAPUA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19328, 15 May 1926, Page 7 (Supplement)

DAYDAWN IN PAPUA.

A STORY AND A STUDY. "Way Back in Papua" (George .Allen and Uinvin. London) is the story of Eni, an old New Guinea native warrior. There are others, but this old man, talking often and much by the fire in his little house, is central in the group that J. H. Holmes uses to portray Papua's passing from the old days to the new. Among these others are white men too, and their varied outlook on the changing Pacific has patient and sympathetic telling. But it is Eni, musing, wondering, timid, who is the picturesque centre of it all. He loves the past, full of its pagan strength and -vivid joys of battle. _ Ho is mistrustful of the new, and finds it hard to grope his way "out of the darkness of the° thought-things of his life." He .has come to see the good intent in the work of peace-making white officials sent by Beritani (Britain) and of the doctor and the missionary, yet thinks it wise neither to risk the iro of the gods he knows nor to trust the God he does not know. Ilis shrewd philosophising reveals the bewilderment and hesitation with which the Papuan, his land and life invaded by the Western world, views the strange ways and contrivances of the newcomers.

On tho thread of this veteran pagan's memories and musings Mr. Holmes has strung many radiant beads of his own thought about the collidings and the eoalescings of the Old World and tho New. Seldom does he allow himself direct statement about the policy that should be followed by official or volnntary effort to carry tho white man's burden among immature peoples, but there is no mistaking where he stands. He pleads, without didactic speech, for a policy of vision, appreciative of the dusky man's rights and difficulties, yot resolutely bent on lifting him from tho ignorance and disabilities of a life remote from tho amenities of a civilisation moro or less Christian.

Skilfully contrived, written with much literary skill, and filled to tho brim with human interest. Mr. Holmes' book grips like a novel. Its perusal cannot fail to leave, on any and every reader, a deep impression; and nowhere in the world should it attract moro grateful readers than in Australia and New Zealand. For the problems with which it sagaciously deals in so alluring a fashion are all about us in these South Pacific waters.