" So you've come to the Sorrowful Islands," is not
an encouraging welcome, but Mr. S. G. C. Knibbs was prepared to be interested in The Savage Solomon (Seeley, Service & Co., 21s.) and has in consequence given us a readable account of the islands and their peoples. As Commissioner of Lands he had to travel extensively, and is thus able to draw an interesting contrast between primitive Rennell Island and the up-to-date capital of Tulagi. Anyone who has had to survey in the virgin tropics can sympathize with his professional difficulties. Mr. Knibbs does not penetrate far below the surface, but, modest though his account is, it is written with an infectious good humour which at once puts us at our ease with the islanders. There are many good stories both of natives and Europeans, but it is a pity that he relapses into such outworn clichés as " affection is absent from the native mind," or, " natives do not understand relation- ship." And surely the symbol F.R.G.S. is no longer indispen- sable to a book of travel.
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