CROCODILES AND CANNIBALS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3764, 4 May 1926, Page 78

CROCODILES AND CANNIBALS.

“Some Experiences of a New Guinea Resident Magistrate.” Bv Captain C. A. VV. Monekton, F.R.G.S., F.Z.S., F.R.A.I. (Cloth, 8s 6d net.) London: John Lane, the Bodley Head. This book, which has gone into four editions already, is now available in a cheap form, with 2(3 illustrations from photographs taken by Captain F. R. Barton, C.M.G. Of entrancing interest,' it seems stranger than fiction, being a riot of real adventures and an orgy of crocodiles and cannibals, of beautiful coral islands, of strange men and stranger beasts, and of hair-raising happenings. Whoever likes books of travel will revel in these “experiences.” Written primarily at the request of the author’s wife, it does not. pretend to possess any scientific value, such geographical, zoological, and scientific work as it ihcludes having been dealt with in various journals; but it does picture correctly the life of a colonial officer in the one-time furthest outpost of the Empire—men of whose lives and work the average Briton knows nothing. In writing it Captain Monekton has abstained from putting into the mouths of the natives the ridiculous jargon or “pidgin English” in which they are popularly supposed to converse. It is a charming book, absorbingly interesting to read. The description of the customs and characters of the natives is given in *a fresh aiid easy style, and the many fine illustrations help to account for the success it has already met with in its previous editions.