Man and occasion met when the Royal Society chose Captain James Cook to command Endeavour on the expedition to Tahiti in 1769 to observe the transit of Venus, a phenomenon of outstanding scientific importance. Its importance was matched by the work of Cook and his fellow-scientists on this and subsequent voyages. Cook was a formidable man: powerful, meticulously painstaking, accurate, and patient.

This is the record o f one man{u2019}s voyages in the Western Pacific in the 1840s, told by himself. At an early age, Andrew Cheyne came from the Shetland Islands to seek his fortune in the Pacific area, and, being a competent and trustworthy young man, was soon engaged in a series of trading voyages for different ship owners. In the four voyages described he searched for sandalwood, beche-de-mer, and other tropical produce at the Isle of Pines, New Caledonia, the Loyalty Islands and the Solomons in Melanesia, and Ponape, Yap, and Palau in Micronesia.

The British historian D. G. E. Hall has said this work of synthesis and interpretation is one "to which the highest tribute must be paid, not only as a work of rare scholarship, but also for presenting for the first time the early history of Southeast Asia as a whole." Westerners who look in vain for a thread of continuity in the actions and attitudes of Southeast Asians will find Coed{u00E8}s presents them with not a thread, but a fabric.

Land rights, perhaps the best known of Aboriginal grievances, is bitterly expressed in 'All they give us now for our land is a blanket once a year'. Yet, as Broom and Jones show in this book, the Aborigines are disadvantaged in every way. No one knows who are Aborigines, how many there are, what jobs they hold, what education they have received. Yet, until this extraordinary ignorance is rectified, there is no basis for planning vital improvements. The authors stress the urgent need for public authorities to gather information on Aboriginal health, housing, employment, and education.

This monograph analyses two specific issues relating to natural disaster relief. First, the assignment of responsibility for natural disaster relief in a federal system is discussed and applied in an Australian context to determine how natural disaster payments affect vertical and horizontal balance. Secondly, attention is focused on the payments to Queensland following the widespread flooding that occurred in 1973-74.

Climate is changing. Parts of our world have been cooling. Rain belts and food-growing areas have shifted. People are starving. And we have been too slow to realize what is happening and why. In recent years, world climate changes have drawn more attention than at any other time in history. What we once called "crazy weather," just a few years ago, is now beginning to be seen as part of a logical and, in part, predictable pattern, an awesome natural force that we must deal with if man is to avoid disaster of unprecedented proportions.

In his editor{u2019}s note, Walter Vella states that this classic text "has been universally acclaimed and - the surest proof of its impact - heavily relied on by all later scholars. ...