A TRADER IN THE SAVAGE SOLOMONS. By Joseph H. C.
Dickinson Illustrated. (Witherby. 12s: 6d.)-It might be thought that a quarter whence Messrs. Lever Bros. procure their materials for soap was a placid and a peaceful region, but when you remember the quite recent murder in Malaita of a white official and all his. party, and when you have read Mr. Diekinson's -exciting and picturesque book, you will have reason to judge otherwise. True, that on the island of Malaita in the Solomons there were, in 1924, 14,000 native tax-payers between the ages of sixteen and sixty-five, but this respectable statistic is tounteMeted by the announcement that "almost every full-grown man is n murderer.", So labour recruiting and trading for copra in these lovely islands, Which look like 'emerald fringed with silver in a deep blue setting," is not precisely a bed of-roses. Moreover, in spite of the British raj, cannibalism was still in vogue when the author was living his adventurous life among-the:se hawk-,eyed, fuzzy-haired stone-age. people, but it must have consoled him to hear. that to native tastes " white nian's flesh did not eat much- better than soap.". The book. -affords an eXcellent picture of the dangerous game of life among the Soloinons.
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