Translator’s Preface

The 1907 edition of Parkinson’s Dreißig Jahre in der Südsee was described in C. R. H. Taylor’s A Pacific Bibliography (1965) as magnificent.

I started translation of it early in 1982, but translation halted abruptly upon receiving a telex and a following letter from Peter White telling me that a publication of a translation of this 876-page work was imminent. No further action was taken until, in 1991, a chance comment by a colleague engaged in the Lapita Homelands Project jogged my memory.

I contacted Peter, and learned that nothing further had been heard of the other translation. I resumed my task, with the assistance of much-improved word-processing technology – the final draft of these 876 pages plus supplementary text travelled to Sydney on two 1.3 MB diskettes (it was felt that direct line transmission of such a valuable text was too risky).

This translation project has taken a long time, being interleaved with the other projects and duties of a physical anthropologist and teacher, as well as those of a professional translator. Translation is never an easy task, because you are very aware that you are interpreting the thoughts of someone else, in this instance, of someone who arrived on New Britain more than 100 years ago, in 1882. Allowance must be made for changes in the meaning, and therefore translation, of words over time, and so I used the earliest dictionary that I could find, published in 1945. I have retained the text form and have tried to preserve the style of the author. Where place names were German borrowings of English names, I have used the original English form. Otherwise I have preserved Parkinson’s spellings of place names (while comparing them with the versions given in the Pacific Islands Pilot), as these have historical significance in their own right.

Many long hours were spent on this work. I cannot express gratitude enough to my wife, Ann, who gave up her husband to a computer terminal, and then painstakingly reviewed his draft translation, turning it into readable English. Ann, and our daughter Sarah, endured much while I laboured. I am most grateful to J. Peter White, who gave me the opportunity to carry out this task, waited patiently while I drip-fed him diskettes, and then meticulously amended the drafts, before passing them to Marta Towe, who painstakingly checked the accuracy of the translation. I am also grateful to the staff of the University of Otago Geography Department, which gave me access to maps of the region, to aid my understanding. I thank you all for your support.

To the readers of this translation, Richard Parkinson has left us a legacy in his writing. I hope you enjoy reading his words as much as I have enjoyed translating them. I wish you well in your research.

K. J. Dennison
Dunedin, December 1997