R. Gerard Ward: quintessential Pacific geographer

R. Gerard Ward: quintessential Pacificgeographer

Richard Bedford and John Overton

Abstract: In December 1998 Professor R. Gerard Ward retired after27 years as Professor of Geography in the Research School of Pacificand Asian Studies at the Australian National University. Ward’scontributions to his discipline, the social sciences, and the discoursesabout development in the Pacific region have been very considerable.This paper reviews some of the achievements of one of the twentiethcentury’s eminent Pacific geographers. After establishing hisacademic roots in the Department of Geography at the Universityof Auckland in the 1950s, we outline the major clusters of his writingon land use and land tenure, population dynamics and urbanisation,Pacific history and prehistory, Pacific development issues, informalmarkets, transport systems and tele-cost worlds. The paper concludeswith an assessment of three unusual features of Ward’s writing: thebreadth of his interests, the range of scales he felt comfortableworking at, and the innovative nature of ideas introduced into debatesabout Pacific development. A comprehensive list of Ward’spublications is attached to this paper.

Keywords: Land tenure, population movement, urbanisation,agriculture, development, communications systems

In December 1998, R. Gerard Ward retired after 27 years as Professor ofHuman Geography in the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies(RSPACS) at the Australian National University (ANU). Ward’s career hasbeen marked by a remarkably consistent and productive record of research witha clear focus on the Pacific Island region. Since the mid-1960s his universityappointments have all been in institutions specialising in Pacific studies, andmost of his publications are on themes relating to Pacific geography.

Asia Pacific Viewpoint, Vol. 40, No. 2, August 1999ISSN: 1360-7456, pp111–135

ß Victoria University of Wellington, 1999. Published by Blackwell Publishers, 108 Cowley Road,Oxford, OX4 1JF, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA.

Authors: Richard Bedford, Professor of Geography and Head of the Division of Culturaland Environmental Studies, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Waikato,P.B. 3105, Hamilton, New Zealand. E-mail: [email protected] Overton, Professor of Development Studies and Head of the School of Global Studies,Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand.Email: [email protected]

Ward is the quintessential Pacific geographer. Even during his years asJunior Lecturer and Lecturer in Geography at the University of Auckland(1956–1961) and Lecturer in Geography at University College London (1961–1966), he was focusing on Pacific research. In common with a number offellow Auckland geography students of the 1950s – especially Peter Pirie andMurray Chapman – Ward was never to get ‘seduced’ into switching hispersonal research focus to other parts of the world.

In this overview of the writings of one of the most influential Pacificgeographers to date, we comment on Gerard Ward’s formative years as amember of a quite remarkable cohort1 of New Zealand geographers whogained their first degrees in Kenneth Cumberland’s Department of Geographyat the University of Auckland. Having established the academic origins of hisPacific researchwhakapapa(genealogy) we then review briefly some of themain themes in his writing over the 42 years since his first academicpublications appeared in 1956.

One of the interesting things about Ward’s research career is that he hasretained an interest throughout his academic career in all of the researchclusters we identify. His first substantive book was on land use and populationin Fiji (1965) and his latest book (with Elizabeth Kingdon and others),published in 1995, is on land tenure and land use in the Pacific. His firstrefereed journal article in 1956 was on Maori settlement in Taupo country andhe is currently preparing a manuscript on journeys to Taupo. His first article onmigration in Fiji (1961) emphasises the importance of urbanisation as a processin the Pacific Islands while his most recent contribution on this theme (1998b)laments the absence of writing on Pacific towns.

The clusters we discuss below do not relate to distinctive periods of researchin Ward’s academic career; rather they are indicative of the wide range ofinterests and specialist expertise of this Pacific geographer. Ward wassimultaneously an ‘agricultural geographer’, a ‘population geographer’, an‘historical geographer’, an ‘urban geographer’, a ‘transport geographer’, a‘rural geographer’ and a ‘cartographer’. In this regard he was an exemplar ofCumberland’s perspective on the geographer: a specialist in the study of places,not a specialist in the study of a particular systematic branch of geography.

THE FORMATIVE YEARS

On the occasion of the University of Auckland Geography Department’s 50thanniversary in 1996, Gerard Ward (1998h: 60) observed:

In the early 1950s this Department had been in existence for less than ten years,and its founder Ken Cumberland was well aware that there were obstacles to beovercome in establishing the Department as a strong contributor in AucklandUniversity College. It was not without its critics, some of whom could not see aparticular place for the discipline of Geography at the University. . . . [T]hisuncertain context was one of the factors which stimulated his strong advocacy ofa distinctive point of view of Geography and the Geographer, with stress on

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strong awareness of place, the uniqueness of individual places (elucidatedthrough regional analysis) and the distinct place of Geography as a chorologicalscience. The importance of the study of methodology, linked to philosophy, wasalways stressed.

Two chance events in the Auckland Department in the mid-1950s were toplay a major part in his life. The first was when one of the teaching staff leftsuddenly to take up a job in the Department of Geography at the University ofOtago and the Auckland Department ‘desperately needed someone to teachfirst year cartography ten hours a week in 1956’ (1998h: 62). The second cameearly in 1956 when a field assistant was required to work on agriculturalchange in one of the Department’s major research projects in Western Samoa(see Fox and Cumberland, 1963). Ward (1998h: 62–63) himself observes: ‘asperhaps the only available staff member at the time, I was catapulted into thefield of Pacific Island studies where I have remained ever since.’

Early research

Ward’s (1998h) recollections of geography at the University of Auckland makeno specific mention of his graduate research on land development around thecentral North Island town of Taupo – an area with which his family has strongconnections. These connections extend into the region’s indigenous Maoricommunity and it is perhaps not surprising, therefore, that his first refereedpublications are entitled ‘Maori settlement in the Taupo country’ (1956a),‘Land development in Taupo country’ (1956c) and ‘Taupo and the centralNorth Island’ (1957). The first substantive paper in this special issue ofAsiaPacific Viewpointis on an interpretation of Maori landscape and land tenure inTaupo, written by his contemporary and good friend Professor Evelyn Stokesfrom the University of Waikato.

In the mid-1950s, Ward’s field work in Samoa had a strong focus onagriculture and land tenure. His first international journal article (1959a), plusthree chapters which he contributed to Fox and Cumberland’s (1962) editedcollection Western Samoa: land, life and agriculture in tropical Polynesia,clearly indicated his research interest socio-economic transformation of ruralcommunities in the Pacific (1962a, 1962b, 1962c). From the late 1950s Ward’spublications were to be dominated by assessments and interpretations of‘development’ in Pacific societies, a theme which John Overton picks up in hispaper on development discourses in Fiji.

If it was field research in Samoa which ‘catapulted’ Ward into the Pacific, itwas his doctoral thesis on land use and population in Fiji which established hisname as a Pacific geographer. Between October 1958 and September 1959Ward took leave from his Junior Lectureship at Auckland to take up a researchassistant’s post in the Department of Geography, University College London,where he completed his doctorate. A revised version of his thesis wassubsequently published and quickly became the standard reference on Fiji’sland use patterns and population dynamics (1965). Ward’s early writing on

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Samoa and Fiji remains heavily referenced in studies of land use, agriculturalchange, internal migration and urbanisation in the Pacific region.

If any further evidence of his wide-ranging interest in the historical andcontemporary development of the Pacific region was needed in the 1960s it camein the eight volume series of documents on American activities in the centralPacific which he edited between 1966 and 1967. This invaluable archivalmaterial, coupled with the strong historical flavour to some of his early writing(1961a, 1968, 1969a), demonstrated that he had a keen awareness of the relevanceof the past for understanding the present. As will be seen below, Ward’s researchhas contributed significantly to our understanding of Pacific prehistory as well asto knowledge about the colonial and post-colonial eras in this region.

A DISTINGUISHED CAREER

By December 1971, when Ward was appointed to the Chair of HumanGeography in the Research School of Pacific Studies (RSPacS as it was calledthen) at the Australian National University, he was already recognisedinternationally for his research on both the historical and contemporarygeography of the Pacific. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that he was to be thefirst New Zealand geographer to be admitted to Fellowship of the prestigiousAcademy of Social Sciences in Australia. His appointment in the same year tothe premier research professorship in human geography in Australia at the ageof 37 years indicated clearly that Ward was well on his way to a prominentleadership role in his discipline.

Administration and professional organisations

Over the subsequent 27 years he has demonstrated this leadership both ingeography as a discipline as well as in the academy at large through adistinguished publication record and a continuous record of service as a senioradministrator. His administrative positions have included: Head of theDepartment of Human Geography through the 1970s and 1980s and again inthe 1990s after he completed just over 12 years as Director of the ResearchSchool of Pacific Studies; member of the Australian National University’sCouncil for several terms between 1978 and 1990; Vice-President andPresident of the Australian Institute of Geography in the late 1970s and early1980s; member of the Australian National Committee for Geography between1978 and 1982; and an active member of the Pacific Science Association formore than 30 years. He was heavily involved in the organisation of the onlyInternational Geographical Congress sponsored by the InternationalGeographical Union ever to be held in Australasia (1988), and has been akey player in the organisation of the 19th Pacific Science Congress in Sydney(July 1999).

His work has been noted and honoured in many different ways. Although hemoved in 1971 to Canberra from Port Moresby, where he had been FoundationProfessor of Geography at the University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG) for



just over four years, his formal connection with the University of Papua NewGuinea did not cease in 1971. For 11 years between 1985 and 1996 he was amember of the UPNG Council, a position he has also held since 1985 at theNational University of Samoa. In 1971, he was awarded the Papua New GuineaSilver Jubilee Medal in recognition of his services to tertiary education in thatcountry.

His involvement in professional organisations show a strong bias towardsthe Pacific. He has been active in the Pacific Science Association for over 30years (member of the Scientific Committee for Geography since 1967, andcurrently Vice-President of the Association), and a member of the AustralianNational Commission for UNESCO (Chairman of the Advisory Committee onPacific Islands Culture, 1988–94). He has also served on the Conseild’Administration, l’Universite Francaise du Pacifique (Member, 1994–95),Australian National Committee for Pacific Science (Member, 1978–82) and, asnoted above, the Councils of the Universities of Papua New Guinea (1985–96)and Samoa (1985 ongoing).

Consultancy

Another measure of Ward’s standing in the wider community, and especiallywithin the Pacific region, has been his work as a consultant and adviser onpublic policy. Perhaps his most significant contribution in this regard was asteam leader for the Asian Development Bank’s South Pacific AgriculturalSurvey in 1979, a project which produced a comprehensive review ofagriculture in the region (1980d). This study was to stimulate a debate inPacific Viewpointin 1984 about processes of and prospects for agriculturalchange in Pacific countries (1984a). Such a debate was a typical outcome ofWard’s writing; he was not afraid to take strong, often quite provocativestances in his research, and for this reason his work was always ‘noticed’.

Other prominent consultancy activities included being an adviser for a WorldBank study on South Pacific tourism in 1988–89, a member of the ‘group ofeminent persons’ appointed to review the intergovernmental structure of theUnited Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific(ESCAP) in 1990, and an adviser on land tenure to the Fiji ConstitutionalReview Committee in 1995. His breadth of disciplinary expertise made him anobvious candidate for ‘reviewing’ academic programmes. His curriculum vitaelists 24 major reviews of Departments and Programmes since 1974. At the timeof writing this review of his career (March 1999) he was involved in a review ofEnvironmental Studies at the University of Auckland – the university where hebegan his academic career in 1951.

A RICH RESEARCH CONTRIBUTION

Reference has already been made to the multi-dimensional nature of Ward’sgeographical research. He worked from the outset with a broad canvas. In thissection, which reviews his writing, we begin with a brief discussion of his



research on land use and land tenure, followed by somewhat more lengthyobservations on his studies of population dynamics and urbanisation. In termsof sequencing, Pacific history and agricultural change come next, followed bya specific interest in rural and urban markets and some concerns over transportand telecommunication systems. Some of these themes, especially thoserelating to land use, land tenure and development are explored more closely inpapers in this volume. We therefore devote rather more attention to some of theother clusters in this overview.

Land use and land tenure

Although impetus for Ward’s interest in issues to do with the land go back tohis earliest work as a research student in the Taupo area, it was Fiji whichprovided the context for most of his substantive writing on land use and landtenure. His research on contemporary land tenure in Fiji in the mid-1960s forhis doctorate at the University of London involved village surveys, analysis ofcadastral maps and an examination of official policy. Although his study at thistime was mainly concerned with the relationship between land tenure and landuse there were some hints of later interests in inequalities and problems of landtenure in the village (1965: 139).

Ward’s interest in the history of land tenure in Fiji stems from his doctoralwork. In a fascinating study of nineteenth-century land alienation he traced theway early processes of land acquisition by Europeans, and subsequent officialratification or rejection of these claims, created a pattern of land tenure andland use that was ‘fossilised’ for the next century (1969). This was a theme hewas to develop further in later work.

Land tenure studies in Fiji continued, including an interesting vignette onIndian tenants (1980o), but it was Ward’s work for the Fiji Employment andDevelopment Mission of 1984 that sharpened his analysis of contemporaryland tenure in Fijian villages. His published work associated with this Mission(1985c, 1986b, 1987) not only documented changes in the way land was heldbut also showed, through careful re-surveying of his earlier field research sites,that inequalities were becoming more marked and Fijian village society wasbeing fundamentally transformed. This work also pointed to the rise ofinformal land tenure practices which were circumventing the official rigid landtenure system (see Overton, this volume).

Ward’s editing of, and substantial contributions to, the book with ElizabethKingdon, Land, custom and practice in the South Pacific(1995c), marks theacademic culmination of his work on land tenure. It brought together severalstrands. Firstly, it marked the synthesis of Ward’s interests in land tenure inFiji. In his chapter on Fiji (1995d) he argued strongly that the official system ofland tenure, developed in the late nineteenth century, had imposed a rigidsocial model on what had been a flexible and complex set of practices.Secondly, he developed the theme of customary practices, of the way peoplehad developed their own strategies (often drawn from pre-colonial practices) todeal with the constraints of the official system.



Finally the work marked a broadening of scope. Having previously extendedhis work on land tenure more widely in Samoa (1995a) and elsewhere in thePacific (1992b), the book allowed him to draw some themes not just fromacross the Pacific (1995g) but also globally (1995f). It is in these two chaptersthat Ward’s extensive studies of Pacific Island land tenure come to fruition interms of a major contribution to the wider literature on this theme. It is herethat he provides some critical insights into the relationships between custom,law and practice and the interplay between communalism and individualism.These relationships are explored in a very different, but related context, byElspeth Young in her contribution to this special issue when she reviewsindigenous and non-indigenous land tenure and land management practices inAustralia.

A later episode in Ward’s land tenure research should be noted. In 1995 hewas invited to present a submission on land issues in Fiji to the country’sConstitutional Review Commission. His report, subsequently published(1997f), built on his empirical studies to suggest fundamental changes inpolicy. Critically important here was a major review of the rigid official systemfor leasing of Fijian land and a recognition of customary practices whichallowed greater flexibility and responsiveness as well as empowerment ofvillage landowners. Again, it marked a culmination, but this time an ability toengage in policy debates informed by a deep empirical understanding of therealities of land use and land tenure in the Pacific.

Population dynamics and urbanisation

In his influential text on the geography of the Southwest Pacific, KennethCumberland (1954) argued that New Zealanders had a responsibility toinvestigate the impending pressure of population on land and resources,especially in the small island colonies of the eastern Pacific. His WesternSamoa project, which included R. Gerard Ward as a research assistant, had, atits core, a concern over the implications of rapid population growth foreconomy and society. Ward carried this general theme into his work on landuse in Fiji and from 1959 papers on population issues in the Pacific began toappear under his name (1959b, 1959c).

The demographic process which particularly interested Ward was internalmigration, and his earliest papers specifically on this theme appeared in 1961(1961b, 1961c). By the 1970s Ward’s perspective on internal migration and theurbanisation of Pacific Island peoples had parted company with that of anumber of his contemporaries, including fellow Auckland graduate, MurrayChapman. Chapman, amongst others, was placing considerable emphasis onthe circulation of Pacific peoples, especially Melanesians, between villages andother locations (including towns) in the island countries (see Bedford (1999)for a review of Chapman’s writing). Urbanisation, in terms of its classicaldemographic definition as the percentage share of a country’s population livingin urban places, remained low throughout the region by comparison with theurban-industrial economies on the Pacific rim. In countries like Papua New



Guinea the percentage living in towns and cities was below 10 in the early1970s – a share which encouraged most writers of the time to argue that thefuture for most indigenous Papuans and New Guineans would be a rural one.

Ward (1968b, 1971b, 1971c, 1973e) argued strongly against what heconsidered was an undue bias towards rural development. A statement he madein an important article on internal migration and urbanisation in Papua NewGuinea (1971c, subsequently reprinted in 1977) to the effect that ‘[i]f the townsare stunted, so will be the nation’ was to run through his writing on populationmovement and the development of towns. Ward has remained convinced thateffective rural progress is impossible without considerable urban development– development which would see much larger percentages of Pacific peoplesliving outside villages.

Unfortunately there was not space in this special issue to include an essay onmigration and urbanisation in Melanesia which examines Ward’s arguments in amore reflective way. We wish to emphasise here, though, that his contributionsto the literature on internal population movements and the development of townsin the Pacific have been of great importance. His paper with the evocative title‘Migration, myth and magic in Papua New Guinea’ (1980a), contains a powerfulchallenge to what was becoming a prevailing orthodoxy in Melanesianmigration studies of the time that Pacific peoples, including most of those intowns, remained essentially rural peoples (Bedford, 1999).

One of Ward’s (1980a: 129) main concerns was with the use of residentialintentions as an indicator of whether a person is a migrant, a temporarysojourner or a circulator. Questioning the tendency for researchers to arguerather unproductively about whether town-resident Melanesians were either‘migrants’ or ‘circulators’ on the basis of their stated intentions about futureresidence in urban or rural places, he observed:

In making assessments of permanency in Papua New Guinea it seems to me thata number of research workers and policy makers have been trapped by their ownassumptions. In dealing with a developed world situation, a one or two yearperiod of residence would probably be accepted as indicative of permanence andthe socio-economic and policy implications would be accepted. In the PapuaNew Guinea case it is often taken for granted that if an urban resident indicatesthat at some time in the future he hopes to return to village life he should beclassed as a temporary migrant – a circulator in transit. Maintenance of ties withthe village community, in the form of remittances, gifts and occasional visits arealso used as indicators of retention of rural orientation, which are similarlyinterpreted as indicators of impermanence and circulatory tendencies (Ward,1980a: 129).

Ward foresaw a number of unfortunate policy implications following from anassumption that internal migrants to Melanesian towns were temporarysojourners. The provision of housing and wages for ‘single’ men, on theassumption that their families would remain living in villages and would besupported by their own subsistence production, were areas of policy whichWard (1980a) attributes to the persistence of this assumption.



In his keynote address to the Pacific Science Association’s Regional Inter-Congress in Suva in July 1997, Ward returned to his long-standing concernabout undue emphasis on rural development at the expense of research onurban populations (and problems) in the region (1998b). It is appropriate toconclude this brief comment on Ward’s research on migration and urbanisationwith a quotation from this paper because it reveals that distinctive quality ofcontinuity in his writings. Ward rarely changed his mind about keygeographical processes over his career.

In the development plans or development statements of Pacific Island countries,we find a greater emphasis on rural development and rural areas than on urbandevelopment and urban areas. In the speeches of politicians we find thatmaintenance of traditional ways, which generally means rural ways, gets mostprominence. In the work of anthropologists, geographers and other researcherswe find the bulk of the research deals with rural areas and rural communities. Yetit is in the urban areas where most of the driving forces which are re-shapingPacific Island economies, societies, polities and geographies have their sources.Surely it is time to address this disjunction between reality and perception bydevoting a much greater proportion of both academic research and governmentplanning attention to the urban areas and rural communities of the region, and totheir related groups in the towns and cities of Pacific Rim countries. Twenty-fiveyears ago I wrote that ‘the attitude that rural life is good and urban life is bad . . .ignores the reverse side of the coin’ [1973e: 362]. The need to look again at theurban Pacific is even greater now with the much higher proportion of thepopulation living in towns (Ward, 1997: 1. A shorter version of this paper ispublished as Ward, 1998b).

Ward’s perspectives on internal migration and urbanisation were notreflective of a particular interest in or focus on Pacific towns, although he didwrite with colleagues at the Australian National University in the late 1970sand early 1980s about food distribution in urban markets (1979b, 1980c).Indeed, the great bulk of his research was on issues related to the rural Pacific:land tenure, rural production systems, plantation agriculture and thedevelopment of Pacific economies. As the next section shows, his ‘reach’into the rural Pacific was not only extensive in a spatial sense; it also hadconsiderable temporal depth as well.

Pacific history and prehistory

Gerard Ward, like Oskar Spate, is at once a geographer and a closet historian.The historical dimension to Ward’s work has been implicit throughout hisresearch career but it has come into the open on occasions when he hasengaged with Pacific historiography. Thus, his list of publications includesarticles in theJournal of Pacific Historyand theJournal of the PolynesianSocietyas well as some explicitly historical chapters and monographs. Againthe interest in history is a longstanding theme, beginning with the Taupo work(1956a) and pervading nearly all his subsequent writing.



Three major clusters of writing appeared in the 1960s and 1970s whichmarked Ward’s contribution to Pacific history and prehistory. The firstinvolved editing of primary material – mainly newspaper reports – concerningAmerican activities in the Pacific in the period 1790–1870. This resulted in aneight-volume collection (Ward 1966–67), an invaluable source on pre-colonialAmerican contact with the region.

His second major contribution to historical geography (really the prehistoryof the eastern Pacific), and one of his most imaginative research ventures, wasto involve him with geography and computer science colleagues in the UnitedStates in an ambitious computer simulation of Polynesian settlement (1969b,1972a, 1973c). This study demonstrated that the probability of initial humansettlement of scattered islands in the eastern Pacific being the result of‘deliberate voyaging’ rather than ‘accidental drift’ was much greater thanpreviously thought. Not surprisingly, the argument and evidence provided byWard and his colleagues from the University of Minnesota, where he wasVisiting Lecturer in 1964, generated considerable debate in the literature.

A footnote to Ward’s computer simulation work was added twenty yearslater. Addressing the debate in prehistory concerning the origins of the coconutpalm and its establishment in the Americas, and drawing on an earlier piecewith Allen on floating coconuts (1980p), the paper used a simulation of PacificOcean currents and winds to conclude that coconuts were most unlikely to havedrifted across the Pacific. Human dispersal of this ubiquitous coastal plant wasmore probable (1992a). It was a further example of Ward’s ability to engagecritically and constructively across disciplinary boundaries.

A third piece of historical work was the bookMan in the Pacific Islandsedited by Ward (1972b). The book contains an impressive collection of thework of historians and geographers addressing some key issues in the Pacific.Ward not only brought the collection together, stimulating the collaborationbetween historians and geographers, but also contributed a chapter himself onthe beche-de-mer trade (1972c), which sat alongside two earlier pieces onsandalwood (1968a) and land alienation (1969a), that resulted from hisresearch on mid-nineteenth century Fiji.

Ward’s interest in historical dimensions to contemporary developmentproblems is the final aspect of his research on the past that we mustacknowledge. An understanding of Pacific history was an essential prerequisitefor explaining present patterns and processes associated with land issues in Fiji(1965, 1985c, 1992b, 1995d, 1995h, 1997f), Australian aid in the Pacific(1976, 1977c, 1988b), and transport and communication links in the region(1989, 1995b, 1997b).

Pacific development issues

Issues of development in the Pacific Island region have constituted one of themain continuing themes in Ward’s work. There are several strands to thistheme with agricultural development being the most consistent. From Ward’sfirst involvement with the Pacific in the 1950s, there was a concern for



agriculture, both in Samoa (1959a, 1962a, 1962b, 1962c) and, with his doctoralresearch, Fiji (1960a, 1963, 1964a, 1964b, 1964c, 1965). In many respects thisearly work traced the major changes in Pacific Island agriculture that weretaking place in response to the development of cash crops: changes in theorganisation of land and labour, production techniques, marketing and thehandling of money.

These interests broadened over the next decade, especially after Ward ledthe Asian Development Bank’s South Pacific Agricultural Survey (1980d–1980n). The work of Ward and others in this survey resulted in a com-prehensive survey of agricultural activities and the prospects for furtherdevelopment in a mix of ‘large’ and ‘small’ island states (1980d). Typically,Ward ensured that within this survey there was a profound appreciation of thesocial, cultural and environmental contexts of the Pacific Island region, forblueprint rural development strategies could not be easily transplanted there.There followed from this work some reflective pieces (Ward 1980q, 1982a,1982b, 1986a) on the future of Pacific Island agriculture and Ward was drawninto an interesting debate about the role of plantations and the ‘plantation modeof management’ in the Pacific (1984a).

His agricultural work then refocused on Fiji, largely as a result of hisdecision to return to the research sites of his doctoral work in the 1960s. Aseries of publications in the mid-1980s addressed the issue of changes in Fijianvillages, their land use and social organisation (1985c, 1986b, 1987). Theopportunity to revisit four rural communities and to reassess agriculturaldevelopments over a 25-year period gave Ward new perspectives on thesignificance of continuity through change. Some of the developments in landtenure, land use, and absentee land ownership were not what he would haveforecast in the late 1960s and the 1970s; these are discussed in his chapterswith Kingdon and Hooper inLand, custom and practice in the South Pacific(1999d, 1995f, 1995g, 1999h). Overton’s assessment of development in Fiji inthis issue ofAsia Pacific Viewpointexamines in greater detail some of Ward’sideas about land tenure and land use.

A second interest in development was more general. A chapter in a book onthe ‘problems of smaller territories’ (1967), which has become a classic in theliterature on the small island countries of Polynesia, marked the start of aninterest in the particular characteristics and development potentials andconstraints of the Pacific Island region. Ward’s findings were rather bleak,seeing little hope for small, remote islands in being able to satisfy the risingmaterial expectations of their residents. Later this theme was developedfurther. Following an earlier paper on the ‘Pacific Islands in the 21st century’(1982b, 1988b), Ward’s keynote address to the International GeographicalCongress in Sydney in 1988 was a masterly exposition of the geographer’s artin both looking backwards and forwards (1989a).

In this address, titled ‘Earth’s empty quarter? The Pacific Islands in thePacific Century’, he demonstrated how the region is conceived of quitedifferently by Europeans and Pacific Islanders – respectively as vast andempty, and a mosaic of islands and connections – and how this has affected its



past and might affect its future. Although he pointed to the way emigration hasincreased opportunities for many Pacific Islanders, he was pessimistic aboutthe future of many of the smaller islands and their inhabitants. A later paper(1993) elaborated on these themes and concluded:

It seems almost inevitable that the flows of migrants will continue as individualsand families make their choices about where their material, and perhaps social,welfare can best be found. They may choose material prosperity elsewhere,rather than accept an image of paradise or a form of aid-dependent pauperismwithin the home islands.

These papers stimulated considerable debate in the region and drewcriticism from Hau’ofa (1994) for being too pessimistic and not recognisingsufficiently the initiative and mobility of Pacific Island peoples. Such debate istimely because the new world order in the final years of this century isfundamentally transforming the way the region is articulated with the rest ofthe world. This, in turn is transforming the region’s development prospects, atheme Ward picks up in the context of what ‘sustainable development’ and‘self-reliance’ mean in countries where large shares of their populations liveand work overseas (1997b).

It is appropriate to conclude this section by quoting from his latestcontribution to the literature on development in small island countries. In aprovocative paper entitled ‘The expanding worlds of Oceania: implications ofmigration’ he observes:

[O]ne implication of the present form and functioning of Oceania’s diaspora isthat we are forced to ask whether it is realistic to expect that the economies of thesmaller island states can ever have ‘sustainable development’ if that developmentis assumed to be related to their territorial boundaries. As Hau’ofa stresses, the‘resources of Samoans, Cook Islanders, Niueans, Tokelauans, Tuvaluans, I-Kiribati, Fijians, Indo-Fijians and Tongans, are no longer confined to theirnational boundaries. They are located wherever these people are living,permanently or otherwise . . .’ It would be more realistic to recognise that theoverall islander community, incorporating both those living in the homelandcountry and those in the rim countries who in fact interact socially andeconomically should be the unit of assessment (Ward, 1997b: 194).

Informal markets, transport systems and tele-cost worlds

The final cluster of writings which we wish to highlight in this overview have acommon connection in dimensions of communication. Ward was not afraid tointroduce new terms into the literature on processes that interested him. Hislatest contribution in this regard is ‘anastomosing migration’ (1997b). Heconsiders that the term anastomosis, which is used in geomorphology to referto river systems and in medicine to refer to systems of arteries ‘which divideand then rejoin in a web of interconnected channels’, can be extended, by



analogy, to the ‘widely scattered members of extended families’ (1997: 186).He goes on to argue that:

The maintenance of Pan-Pacific anastomosing patterns of Pacific Islandersettlement today is made possible by good communications. Without mail,telephone and relatively easy and affordable travel, the links would atrophy and,in time, be forgotten or cease to be functional. This is what happened in earliercenturies as out-migrants were integrated into their destination communities andgradually ceased to have any role in their natal communities. Today, themaintenance of the links has important results, socially, economically andpolitically (Ward, 1997b: 187).

The communications revolution which underlies the development andmaintenance of the anastomosing channels linking distant communitiesfeatures in several recent publications (1989a, 1993, 1995b, 1998a). Wardcommenced his review of Pacific Island futures in the early 1990s bycomparing a trip he made by air from Honolulu to Nadi (Fiji) in 1959 with thelast South Pacific flight made by Canadian International (formerly CanadianPacific) to Fiji and Australia and New Zealand in April 1991 (1993: 1). Heobserved that ‘[s]ince 1959 the islands and peoples of the South Pacific havechanged dramatically, and that the social, economic, and political changes are,in large measure, concomitants of the transport changes’ (1993: 2).

A general trend, which he notes at both international as well as nationalscales in the region, is an increase in ‘spatial disadvantage’ in economic andsocial life for large parts of every island country (1993: 5). There has been asignificant increase in differentiation between places in terms of access bothto towns within countries, as well as to overseas destinations. Ward has takenup this theme recently with reference to air transport in Tonga (1998a). Usingdata on elapsed air travel time, he shows that since the mid 1960s some of theouter islands of the archipelago have become more ‘distant’ from the capitalon Tongatapu than Auckland, a major international destination for Tongans.This is despite the fact that the linear distances in nautical miles betweenTongatapu and the outer islands are only one-third of the distance between thecapital and Auckland (1998a). Relative accessibility, both within and betweenisland countries, remains a key concern for Ward in the late 1990s, just as itwas when he wrote on the consequences of smallness in Polynesia in the late1960s.

An interesting experiment, which made use of a combination of classicallocation theory from geographies of the 1960s and 1970s, and ideas emanatingfrom a third-world literature on periodic markets in rural Africa, demonstratesyet again Ward’s potential for innovation in research. Working with long-standing friend and colleague Diana Howlett, transport geographer ChristopherKissling, and specialist in quantitative analysis Herbert Weinand, Warddeveloped an argument for the provision of ‘mobile urban services’ in theCentral Highlands of Papua New Guinea (1975a, 1978a). The concept ofmarket raunwas born, and some innovative ‘applied geography’ was brought



to bear on the complex problem of differential accessibility to services inremote parts of Papua New Guinea. Ward’s experiment did not lead to apermanent transformation in service provision to communities in the CentralHighlands, but it did demonstrate yet again the ability of this geographer tochallenge conventional wisdom.

In a thought-provoking analysis of telecommunications in the Pacific,written for a volume of essays marking the retirement of long-standing friendand colleague, Peter Haggett, Ward (1995b) introduced another term into thePacific literature: ‘tele-cost worlds’. Using the metric of telephone chargesbetween countries, he explored the proposition that over the past two decadessatellites and fibre optic cables had greatly reduced the distance-relatedcomponent in the cost structure of telecommunications in the Pacific.

His analysis revealed that there remained quite complex sub-regionalstructures of costs in telecommunication which reflected the roles of socio-political, historical and technical links. He concluded that, notwithstanding thediffusion of new technologies and access to new telecommunication services inthe region, ‘it is unlikely that distance will be eliminated as an important factorconstraining development’ (Ward, 1995b: 238). The quintessential geographerremains convinced that we are a long way from what O’Brien (1990) suggestedmight be the ‘end of geography’ because of the impact of technology andcapital flows in ‘the global village’.

A MAN FOR ALL SCALES

When considered as a ‘package’, R. Gerard Ward’s publications reveal severalunusual characteristics. Firstly, there is the range of topics which he hasexplored and sustained an interest in throughout his research career. As wenoted in the introduction to this paper, it is difficult to label Ward in terms of aparticular geographical specialism. He is truly a geographer committed tounderstanding processes responsible for spatial differentiation at a wide rangeof scales.

Secondly there is the range of scales at which he feels comfortableconducting geographical research. His Fiji land tenure work is based upon verydetailed analysis of particular village situations. In common with other Pacificgeographers of the 1960s and 1970s (such as Murray Chapman – see Bedford,1999) he has returned to ‘his villages’ to examine change through time as wellas over space (1986b, 1995d). The sub-national scale of analysis is one whichhas not featured large in the geographical literature on the Pacific, especiallycountries in the eastern and northern parts of the region. Ward (1990c)questions the relative lack of attention by geographers to research ondevelopment at this scale. The national and supra-national (Pacific region)scales frequently surface in his writing, sometimes simultaneously as inSouthPacific agriculture: choices and constraints(1980d–n). Fiji, Papua NewGuinea and Samoa have been the main foci for his national-level studies(including production of some of the first country atlases and land use maps –1963, 1964a, 1971a, 1998c, 1998i).



Thirdly, there are the innovative contributions to debates about settlement,development and change in the Pacific region. His 1967 paper on theconsequences of smallness in Polynesia was the first in a series of reflectiveassessments of some fundamental geographical dimensions of Pacific countrieswhich have interested him throughout his academic career. In the early 1970s itwas the settlement of Polynesia which captured his attention at the supra-national level (1972a, 1973c, 1973d). In the late 1970s it was Australia’s rolein Pacific development (1976, 1977c, see also 1988b) and the role of the urbaninformal sector in the development of Pacific towns (1978b). In the 1980sissues of agricultural change (1980d, 1982b, 1984a, 1984b, 1986a, 1988c),rural labour supply (1981b), and the revolutions in transport and personalmobility (1989a) featured in his region-wide assessments. In the 1990s it hasbeen land tenure issues (1992b, 1995c, 1997c, 1997d, 1997e, 1998g), mobilityand ‘world enlargement’ (1997b), urbanisation (1998b) and Pacific identities(1998f) which attracted his attention.

Clarke’s use of poetry by Pacific Islanders, to capture the essence of debatesabout development and change in Oceania, is a fitting concluding paper for thisspecial issue ofAsia Pacific Viewpoint. In a typically sensitive and originalway, Clarke uses his paper to reflect the wide range of themes which infuse thewriting of his longstanding friend and colleague, R. Gerard Ward. This writingis detailed in the full list of Ward’s publications provided below. It is quiteevident from the substantial burst in publications since the mid-1990s that wehave not heard the last of Ward by a long shot. We look forward to reading hisforthcoming journeys to Taupo, which are taking him back to where hisresearch career started, and to seeing more of his reflections on the future of thePacific as we go into the twenty-first century.

NOTE

1 We acknowledge Murray Chapman’s suggestion of the cohort analogy for the group ofAuckland geographers who were to become specialists in the Pacific from the mid-1950s.Chapman himself is a member of this cohort (see Bedford, 1999 for a brief review of hisacademic career) along with Peter Pirie, Bryan Farrell, and Marion Ward (neé Solly).

REFERENCES (OTHER THAN TO WARD)

Bedford, R.D. (1999) Mobility in Melanesia: bigman bilong circulation,Asia Pacific Viewpoint40(1): 3–17.

Cumberland, K.B. (1954)Southwest Pacific: a geography of Australia, New Zealand and theirPacific Island neighbourhoods, Christchurch: Whitcombe and Tombs.

Fox, J.W. and Cumberland, K.B. (1962)Western Samoa: land, life and agriculture in tropicalPolynesia, Christchurch: Whitcombe and Tombs.

Hau’ofa, E. (1994) Our sea of islands,The Contemporary Pacific6(1): 147–163.O’Brien, R. (1990) The end of geography? The impact of technology and capital flows,The

AMEX Bank Review17: 2–5.



LIST OF PUBLICATIONS: R. GERARD WARD

Books, articles, chapters, published reports

1955a The geographic study of landforms,Proceedings of the First New Zealand GeographyConference, Auckland 22–26 August 1955, Auckland: New Zealand GeographicalSociety: 21–26.

1955b Lecture reports,Record: N.Z. Geographical Society19: 20–21, 20: 1–7.

1956a Maori settlement in the Taupo country,Journal of the Polynesian Society65(l): 41–44.

1956b Geothermal steam,New Zealand Geographer12(1): 99–100.

1956c Land Development in the Taupo Country,New Zealand Geographer12(2): 115–132.

1957 Taupo and the central North Island,New Zealand Geographer13(1): 56–66.

1959a The banana industry in Western Samoa,Economic Geography35(2): 123–137.

1959b The population of Fiji,Geographical Review49(3): 322–341.

1959c (with W. Moran) Recent population trends in the Southwest Pacific,Tijdschrift voorEconomische en Sociale Geografie50(11): 235–240.

1960a Village agriculture in Viti Levu, Fiji,New Zealand Geographer16(1): 33–56.

1960b (with M. Chapman) Forestry and forest industries, in R.G. Ward and M.W. Ward(eds), New Zealand’s industrial potential, Auckland: New Zealand GeographicalSociety, pp. 56–74, 179.

1960c (Ed. with M.W. Ward)New Zealand’s industrial potential, Auckland: New ZealandGeographical Society.

1960d Captain Alexander Maconochie, R.N., K.H., 1787–1860,Geographical Journal126(4): 459–468.

1960e Recent population trends in the Southwest Pacific,New Zealand Geographical SocietyAuckland Branch Newsletter2: 1–3.

1961a A note on population movements in the Cook Islands,Journal of the PolynesianSociety70(l): 1–10.

1961b Islands of the South Pacific, London: Educational Supply Association (1965 2ndedition; 1969 3rd edition; Ward Lock and Co., London.)

1961c Internal migration in Fiji,Journal of the Polynesian Society70(3): 257–271.

1962a (with B.H. Farrell) The village and its agriculture, in J.W. Fox and K.B. Cumberland(eds),Western Samoa: land, life and agriculture in tropical Polynesia, Christchurch:Whitcombe and Tombs, pp. 177–238.

1962b Agriculture outside the village and commercial systems, in J.W. Fox and K.B.Cumberland (eds),Western Samoa: land, life and agriculture in tropical Polynesia,Christchurch: Whitcombe and Tombs, pp. 266–289.



1962c A regional view of Samoan agriculture, in J.W. Fox and K.B. Cumberland (eds),Western Samoa: land, life and agriculture in tropical Polynesia, Christchurch:Whitcombe and Tombs, pp. 290–309.

1963 Land use map, Viti Levu, Fiji, 1:250,000, London: Directorate of Overseas Surveys.Reprinted 1976.

1964a Land use map, Vanua Levu, Fiji, 1:250,000, London: Directorate of Overseas Surveys.Reprinted 1976.

1964b Cash cropping and the Fijian village,Geographical Journal130(4): 484–506.

1964c Rural Fijians’ income from export crops,Pacific Viewpoint5(l): 69–74.

1965 Land use and population in Fiji: a geographical study, London: H.M.S.O.

1966–67 (Ed.)American activities in the central Pacific, 1790–1870, Ridgewood (New Jersey):Gregg Press Inc. (Vol. 1, 1966; Vols. 2–8, 1967).

1967 The consequences of smallness in Polynesia, in B. Benedict (ed.),Problems of smallerterritories, London: Athlone Press, pp. 80–96.

1968a An intelligence report on Sandalwood,Journal of Pacific History3: 178–180.

1968b Reshaping New Guinea’s geography,Inaugural lecture, University of Papua and NewGuinea, Port Moresby: University of Papua New Guinea (Reprinted in 1969 inBulletin (Geographical Society of New South Wales)1(2): 9–15).

1969a Land use and land alienation in Fiji to 1885,Journal of Pacific History4: 3–25.(Shorter version reprinted inThe history of Melanesia. Proceedings of the secondWaigani seminar, Port Moresby and Canberra: University of Papua and New Guineaand The Australian National University, pp. 253–264).

1969b (with M. Levison, T.I. Fenner, W.A. Sentance, and J.W. Webb) A model of accidentaldrift voyaging in the Pacific Ocean with applications to the Polynesia colonizationproblem,Information Processing68: 1521–1526.

1971a (Ed. with D.A.M. Lea)An atlas of Papua New Guinea, Glasgow: Department ofGeography, University of Papua and New Guinea and Collins-Longman.

1971b (with A.V. Surmon)Port Moresby 1970, Port Moresby: Department of GeographyOccasional Paper No. 1, University of Papua New Guinea. (Revised and extendededitions, 1972 and 1973.)

1971c Internal migration and urbanisation in Papua New Guinea,New Guinea ResearchBulletin 42: 81–107. (Reprinted in 1977 in R. May (ed.),Change and movement:readings on internal migration in Papua New Guinea, Canberra: Australian NationalUniversity Press, pp. 27–51.)

1972a (with M. Levison and J.W. Webb) The settlement of Polynesia: a report on a computersimulation,Archaeology and Physical Anthropology in Oceania7(3): 234–245.

1972b (Ed.)Man in the Pacific Islands, Oxford: Clarendon Press.



1972c The Pacificbeche-de-mertrade with special reference to Fiji, in R.G. Ward (ed.),Manin the Pacific Islands, Oxford: Clarendon Press, pp. 91–123.

1973a Papua New Guinea, in Committee for the World Atlas of Agriculture (ed.),Worldatlas of agriculture vol 2: Asia and Oceania, Novara: Istituto Geografico De Agostini,pp. 654–661.

1973b (with D.J. Pannett and D. Thomas) Farm patterns in the Stiperstones Mining District:I. Field method and historical analysis,Field Studies3(5): 763–782.

1973c (with M. Levison and J.W. Webb)The settlement of Polynesia: a computer simulation,Minneapolis and Canberra: University of Minnesota Press and The AustralianNational University Press.

1973d (with J.W. Webb and M. Levison) The settlement of the Polynesian outliers: acomputer simulation,Journal of the Polynesian Society82(4): 330–342. (Reprinted in1976 in B.R. Finney (ed.),Pacific navigation and voyaging, Wellington: PolynesianSociety, pp. 57–68.)

1973e Urbanisation in the Pacific facts and policies, in R. May (ed.),Priorities in Melanesiandevelopment. Proceedings of the sixth Waigani seminar, Port Moresby and Canberra:University of Papua New Guinea and The Australian National University, pp. 362–372.

1974a The new New Guinea: constraints and opportunities, (Fifth Griffith Taylor MemorialLecture),Australian Geographer12(6): 497–509.

1974b (with M.W. Ward) An economic survey of west Kalimantan,Bulletin of IndonesianEconomic Studies10(3): 26–53.

1975a (with D.A.M. Lea, and N. Clark) Geographers in Papua New Guinea: A preliminarybibliography,Australian Geographer13(1): 104–145.

1975b A comment on obligations in migration research, in R.J. Pryor (ed.),The motivation ofmigration: proceedings of a seminar on internal migration in Asia and the Pacific,Canberra: Studies in Migration and Urbanization No. 1, Department of Demography,Research School of Social Sciences, The Australian National University, pp. 22–24.

1975c (with D. Howlett, C.C. Kissling and H.C. Weinand) Area improvement and mobileservices in Papua New Guinea: a proposal,Proceedings of the InternationalGeographical Union regional conference and eighth New Zealand Geographyconference, 1974, Palmerston North: International Geographical Union, pp. 125–131.

1976 (with J.A. Ballard) In their own image: Australia’s impact on Papua New Guinea andlessons for future aid,Australian Outlook30(3): 439–458.

1977a (with D.W. Drakakis-Smith and T.G. McGee)Interim report on stores and markets inVila and Santo, January–February 1976, Canberra: Department of HumanGeography, Research School of Pacific Studies, The Australian National University.

1977b (with J.W. Webb and M. Levison) The settlement of Polynesia: drift or navigation? Acomputer simulation,Sovetskaya Etnografiya4: 29–43. (In Russian.)

1977c Australia in the Pacific Islands, in D.N. Jeans (ed.),Australia: a geography, Sydney:



University of Sydney Press, pp. 543–557. (Revised edition, in D. Jeans (ed.),Spaceand society: Australia a geography, Vol. 2, Sydney: University of Sydney Press, pp.385–399.)

1978a (with D. Howlett, C.C. Kissling and H.C. Weinand)Maket raun: The introduction ofperiodic markets to Papua New Guinea, in R.H.T. Smith (ed.),Market-place tradeperiodic markets, hawkers, and traders in Africa, Asia, and Latin America,Vancouver: Centre for Transportation Studies, University of British Columbia, pp.99–111.

1978b After the ‘Ball’ is over, in P.J. Rimmer, D.W. Drakakis–Smith and T.G. McGee (eds),Food, shelter and transport in Southeast Asia and the Pacific, Canberra: Departmentof Human Geography Publication HG/12, Research School of Pacific Studies, TheAustralian National University, pp. 275–277.

1979a (with H.C. Weinand) Area preferences in Papua New Guinea,AustralianGeographical Studies17(l): 64–75.

1979b (with D.W. Drakakis-Smith and T.G. McGee) Food distribution, self-reliance anddevelopment in the New Hebrides, in W. Moran, P. Hosking and G. Aitken (eds),Proceedings of tenth New Zealand geography conference and forty-ninth ANZAAScongress (geographical sciences), Christchurch: N.Z. Geographical SocietyConference Series No. 10, pp. 208–211.

1980a Migration, myth and magic in Papua New Guinea,Australian Geographical Studies18(2): 119–134.

1980b (with M.W. Ward) The rural–urban connection a missing link in Melanesia,MalaysianJournal of Tropical Geography1(1): 57–63.

1980c (with T.G. McGee and D. Drakakis-Smith)Food distribution in the New Hebrides,Canberra and Suva: Development Studies Centre Monograph No. 25, Research Schoolof Pacific Studies, The Australian National University, and University of South PacificCentre for Applied Studies in Development.

1980d (Ed. with A. Proctor)South Pacific agriculture: choices and constraints. South Pacificagricultural survey 1979, Manila and Canberra: Asian Development Bank andAustralian National University Press.

1980e The environmental context, in R.G. Ward and A. Proctor (eds),South Pacificagriculture: choices and constraints. South Pacific agricultural survey 1979, Manilaand Canberra: Asian Development Bank and Australian National University Press, pp.3–25.

1980f (with E. Hau’ofa) The demographic and dietary contexts, in R.G. Ward and A. Proctor(eds),South Pacific agriculture: choices and constraints. South Pacific agriculturalsurvey 1979, Manila and Canberra: Asian Development Bank and Australian NationalUniversity Press, pp. 27–48.

1980g (with E. Hau’ofa) The social context, in R.G. Ward and A. Proctor (eds),South Pacificagriculture: choices and constraints. South Pacific agricultural survey 1979, Manilaand Canberra: Asian Development Bank and Australian National University Press, pp.49–71.



1980h (with A.S. Proctor) The political context, in R.G. Ward and A. Proctor (eds),SouthPacific agriculture: choices and constraints. South Pacific agricultural survey 1979,Manila and Canberra: Asian Development Bank and Australian National UniversityPress, pp. 137–155.

1980i (with E. Hau’ofa, A.S. Proctor and D.E. Yen) Other infrastructural conditions, in R.G.Ward and A. Proctor (eds),South Pacific agriculture: choices and constraints. SouthPacific agricultural survey 1979, Manila and Canberra: Asian Development Bank andAustralian National University Press, pp. 181–193.

1980j (with L.V. Castle) Kiribati, in R.G. Ward and A. Proctor (eds),South Pacificagriculture: choices and constraints. South Pacific agricultural survey 1979, Manilaand Canberra: Asian Development Bank and Australian National University Press, pp.353–367.

1980k (with L.V. Castle) Tonga, in R.G. Ward and A. Proctor (eds),South Pacificagriculture: choices and constraints. South Pacific agricultural survey 1979, Manilaand Canberra: Asian Development Bank and Australian National University Press, pp.381–394.

1980l (with L.V. Castle) The Solomon Islands, in R.G. Ward and A. Proctor (eds),SouthPacific agriculture: choices and constraints. South Pacific agricultural survey 1979,Manila and Canberra: Asian Development Bank and Australian National UniversityPress, pp. 407–420.

1980m (with L.V. Castle) Fiji, in R.G. Ward and A. Proctor (eds),South Pacific agriculture:choices and constraints. South Pacific agricultural survey 1979, Manila and Canberra:Asian Development Bank and Australian National University Press, pp. 421–429.

1980n (with D.E. Yen) Regional Prospects, in R.G. Ward and A. Proctor (eds),South Pacificagriculture: choices and constraints. South Pacific agricultural survey 1979, Manilaand Canberra: Asian Development Bank and Australian National University Press, pp.451–460.

1980o Plus ça change ... plantations, tenants, proletarians or peasants in Fiji, in J.N. Jenningsand G.J.R. Linge (eds),Of time and place, Canberra: Australian National UniversityPress, pp. 134–152.

1980p (with B.J. Allen) The viability of floating coconuts,Science in New Guinea7(2): 69–72.

1980q Agricultural options for the Pacific Islands, in R.T. Shand (ed.),The island states ofthe Pacific and Indian oceans: anatomy of development, Canberra: DevelopmentStudies Centre Monograph No. 23, Research School of Pacific Studies, The AustralianNational University, pp. 23–39. (Reprinted in N.A. Shilo and A.V. Lozhkin (eds),Ecology and environmental protection in the Pacific region, Moscow: PublishingOffice ‘Nauka’ and UNEP, 1982, pp. 188–201.)

1980r Highlights of discussion, in R. Chandra (ed.),Food distribution systems in the SouthPacific, Canberra and Suva: Development Studies Centre, and University of the SouthPacific Centre for Applied Studies in Development, pp. 7–11.

1981a Decision makers in migration Papua New Guinea,Population Geography3(1–2): 69–76.



1981b (with G.W. Jones) Rural labour shortages in Southeast Asia and the Pacific: a reviewof the evidence, in G.W. Jones and H.V. Richter (eds),Population mobility anddevelopment: Southeast Asia and the Pacific, Canberra: Development Studies CentreMonograph No. 27, Research School of Pacific Studies, The Australian NationalUniversity, pp. 387–405.

1982a Les dilemmes de l’agriculture dans le Pacifique Sud,L’Espace Geógraphique11(4):269–280.

1982b The Pacific Islands in the 21st century: land, people, agriculture,Journal of the PacificSociety14: 6–20. [Japanese translation 36–44.]

1982c Dilemmas in South Pacific agriculture,The South Pacific Journal of Natural Science3: 9–30.

1982d Closing address,The South Pacific Journal of Natural Science3: 134–141.

1984a Production or management where is the problem?Pacific Viewpoint25(2): 212–217.

1984b Agriculture, size and distance in South Pacific Island futures, in T.J. Hearn, G.M.Broad and J.D. Campbell, (eds),XV Pacific Science Congress Formal Proceedings,Dunedin: Royal Society of New Zealand, pp. 103–109. (Reprinted in A.L. Dahl and J.Carew-Reid (eds),Environment and resources in the Pacific, New York: UNEPRegional Seas Reports and Studies No. 69, 1985, pp. 19–27.)

1985a On Cooke’s Second Law,Area 17(4): 322–324.

1985b (with H.C. Brookfield and F. Ellis)Land cane and coconuts: papers on the ruraleconomy of Fiji, Canberra: Department of Human Geography Publication HG/17,Research School of Pacific Studies, The Australian National University.

1985c Land, land use and land availability in Fiji, in H.C. Brookfield, F.E. Ellis and R.G.Ward, Land, cane and coconuts: papers on the rural economy of Fiji, Canberra:Department of Human Geography Publication HG/17, Research School of PacificStudies, The Australian National University, pp. 15–64.

1986a Reflections on Pacific Island agriculture in the late 20th century,Journal of PacificHistory 21(4): 217–226. (Reprinted in H.J. Buchholz (ed.)New Approaches todevelopment co-operation with South Pacific countries, Saarbrucken: VerlagBreitenbach, Papers of the Institute for International Relations, 11, 1987, pp. 129–137.)

1986b Change in land use and villages Fiji: 1958–1983,Symposium U.G.I. No. 33,Developpement Rural dans les Pays Tropicaux, Bordeaux 22–24 August 1984,Travaux et Documents de Geógraphie Tropicale, Centre d’Etudes de GeógraphieTropicale, 55, pp. 109–120.

1987 Native Fijian villages: a questionable future?, in M. Taylor (ed.),Fiji: futureimperfect, Sydney: Allen and Unwin, pp. 33–45. (Revised version in R. Crocombe andM. Meleisea (eds),Land issues in the Pacific, Christchurch and Suva: University ofCanterbury and University of the South Pacific, pp. 133–144.)

1988a L’utilisation du sol a` Fidji, in B. Antheaume and J. Bonnemaison (eds),Atlas des Ileset Etats du Pacifique Sud, Montpelier and Paris: GIP Reclus, pp. 76–77.



1988b (Ed. with M. Brookfield)New directions in the South Pacific: a message for Australia,Canberra: Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, and Research School ofPacific Studies, Australian National University.

1988c The future role of agricultural research in the South Pacific, in International Servicefor National Agricultural Research (INSAR) (ed.),The planning and management ofagricultural research in the South Pacific, (Report of a Workshop held in Alafua,Western Samoa, 5–16 October 1987), The Hague: ISNAR, pp. 33–39.

1989a Earth’s empty quarter? The Pacific Islands in the Pacific century,GeographicalJournal 155(2): 235–246.

1989b (with J. Overton) The coups in retrospect: the new political geography of Fiji,PacificViewpoint30(2): 207–216.

1990a Contract labor recruitment from the Highlands of Papua New Guinea, 1950–1974,International Migration Review24(2): 273–296.

1990b Guest Editor’s introduction,Regional Development Dialogue11(4) iii–vii.

1990c Subnational development in Pacific Island countries: a dimension forgotten?RegionalDevelopment Dialogue11(4): 1–17.

1990d Introduction to O.H.K. Spate, ‘Thirty years ago: a view of the Fijian political scene’,Journal of Pacific History25(1):103–104.

1991 Introductory address – culture and development: issues for island countries, inUNESCO, Culture des ıˆles et de´veloppement(Islands’ culture and development),Paris: United Nations, pp. 19–33.

1992a (with M. Brookfield) The dispersal of the coconut: did it float or was it carried toPanama?Journal of Biogeography19(5): 467–480.

1992b Pacific Island land tenure: an overview of practices and issues, in D.G. Malcolm and J.Skog (eds),Land, culture & development in the aquatic continent: cultural values inthe age of technology, Kihei: Kapalua Pacific Center, pp. 29–40.

1992c Summary of land tenure issues, in D.G. Malcolm and J. Skog (eds),Land, culture &development in the aquatic continent: cultural values in the age of technology, Kihei:Kapalua Pacific Center, pp. 261–263.

1993 South Pacific island futures: paradise, prosperity, or pauperism?The ContemporaryPacific 5(1): 1–21. (Reprinted inLand tenure in the Pacific Islands: selected readings,Kihei: Kapalua Pacific Center, 1992, pp. 49–57.)

1994 Davidson’s contributions to the ‘Admiralty Handbooks’,Journal of Pacific History29(2): 238–240.

1995a Deforestation in Western Samoa,Pacific Viewpoint36(1): 73–93.

1995b The shape of tele–cost worlds: The Pacific Island case, in A.D. Cliff, P.R. Gould, A.G.Hoare, and N.J. Thrift (eds),Diffusing geography: essays for Peter Haggett, Oxford:Blackwell, Special Publication Series No. 31, Institute of British Geographers, pp. 221–240. (Revised and shortened version inDevelopment Bulletin37, 1996, pp. 41–47.)



1995c (Eds. R.G. Ward and E. Kingdon)Land, custom and practice in the South Pacific,Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

1995d Land, law and custom: diverging realities in Fiji, in R.G. Ward and E.B. Kingdon(eds), Land, custom and practice in the South Pacific, Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press, pp. 198–249.

1995e (with E.B. Kingdon) Introduction, in R.G. Ward and E.B. Kingdon (eds),Land, customand practice in the South Pacific, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 1–6.

1995f (with E.B. Kingdon) Land use and tenure: some comparisons, in R.G. Ward and E.B.Kingdon (eds), Land, custom and practice in the South Pacific, Cambridge:Cambridge University Press, pp. 7–35.

1995g (with E.B. Kingdon) Land tenure in the Pacific Islands, in R.G. Ward and E.B.Kingdon (eds), Land, custom and practice in the South Pacific, Cambridge:Cambridge University Press, pp. 36–64.

1995h (with A. Hooper) Beyond the breathing space, in R.G. Ward and E.B. Kingdon (eds),Land, custom and practice in the South Pacific, Cambridge: Cambridge UniversityPress, pp. 251–264.

1995i (with J. Bonnemaison, J. Overton, B. Antheaume, R. Lawrence and J–F. Dupon) Ausein de la culture oceánienne, in M. Bruneau, C. Taillard, B. Antheaume, J.Bonnemaison (eds),Asie du Sud–Est, Oceánie, Paris: Belin/Reclus, pp. 388–411.

1997a (with R. Chandra) Fidji, un nouveau de´part. Developpement et proble`me ethnique,Revue Tiers Monde38(149): 157–176.

1997b Expanding worlds of Oceania: implications of migration, in K. Sudo and S. Yoshida(eds), Contemporary migration in Oceania: diaspora and network, Josaka: CASSymposium Series No. 3, The Japan Center for Area Studies, National Museum ofEthnology, pp. 179–196.

1997c Land tenure, in D. Denoon et.al. (eds)The Cambridge history of the Pacific Islanders,Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 90–96.

1997d Changing forms of communal tenure, in P. Larmour (ed.),The governance of commonproperty in the Pacific Region, Canberra: National Centre for Development Studies,Pacific Policy Paper No. 19, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, pp. 19–32.

1997e Land tenure: the gap between law, customs and practice, in Asian Development Bank,Sociocultural issues and economic development in the Pacific Islands, Manila: Vol. II,Asian Development Bank, pp. 39–48.

1997f Land in Fiji, in B.V. Lal and T.R. Vakatora (eds),Fiji in transition, Suva: ResearchPapers of the Fiji Constitution Review Commission, Vol 1, School of Social andEconomic Development, University of the South Pacific, pp. 247–258.

1998a Remote runways: air transport and distance in Tonga,Australian GeographicalStudies36(2): 177–186.

1998b Urban research in the Pacific Islands: a brief review,Development Bulletin45: 22–26.



1998c Land tenure, in R. Chandra and K. Mason (eds),An atlas of Fiji, Suva: University ofthe South Pacific, pp. 92–97.

1998d (with E. Young and C. Hunt) The environment, traditional production and population,in G. Thompson (ed.),Economic dynamism in the Asia–Pacific: the growth ofintegration and competitiveness, Milton Keynes: Open University Press, pp. 303–334.

1998e (with D. Denoon and G. Ward) Pacific Island studies, inKnowing ourselves andothers: the Humanities in Australia into the 21st century, Vol. 2, Canberra: AustralianResearch Council, pp. 209–214.

1998f Polynesie: divisions et identite´s, in D. Tryon and P. de Deckker (eds),Identities enmutation dans le Pacifique a` l’aube du troisieme millenaire, Bordeaux: Centre deRecherches sur les Espaces Tropicaux de l’Unversite´ Michel de Montaigne, pp. 21–33.

1998g The link with land: questions about change, in D. Guillaud, M. Seysset and A. Walter(eds),Le voyage inacheve´ a Joel Bonnemaison, Paris: Editions de l’ORSTOM andPRODIG, pp. 521–525.

1998h The 1950s – professional and personal recollections, in A. Fowler and H-K Yoon(eds), Celebrating fifty years: Department of Geography in the City of Sails,Auckland: Occasional Publication No. 39, Department of Geography, University ofAuckland, pp. 60–63.

1998i (with P. Ashcroft)Samoa: mapping the diversity, Suva: Institute of Pacific Studies,University of the South Pacific, Suva and National University of Samoa.

Major Consultancy Reports

1973 Structure and landforms; Population, inPreliminary regional survey for road networkidentification in Kalimantan Barat Indonesia, Volume 2: Environment and population,Snowy Mountains Engineering Corporation [Cooma]. Client: Government ofAustralia, pp. 5–7, 22–68.

1974 (with N. Clark, D. Howlett, C.C. Kissling and H.C. Weinand)Growth centres andarea improvement in the Eastern Highlands District: a Report to the Central PlanningOffice, Papua New Guinea, Department of Human Geography, The AustralianNational University, Canberra. Client: Central Planning Office, Government of PapuaNew Guinea.

1974 (with D. Howlett, C.C. Kissling and H.C. Weinand)Maket raun pilot projectfeasibility study, a report to the Central Planning Office, Papua New Guinea,Department of Human Geography, The Australian National University, Canberra.Client: Central Planning Office, Government of Papua New Guinea.

1979 Pacific Island choices: rural limits and opportunities. Client: Asian DevelopmentBank.

1981 (with M.W. Ward)South Pacific special area study, ESCAP Special Study on FoodSupply and Distribution Systems. Client: ESCAP.



1986 (with M.W. Ward)The development of Social Science in the National University ofSamoa. Client: National University of Samoa.

1991 (with Unku Aziz and Te’o Fairbairn)Report of the Committee to Review theUniversity of the South Pacific. Client: Commonwealth Fund for Technical Co-operation.

1991 Data on the subsistence sector, Western Samoa, Vols. 1 and 2. Client: South PacificForum Secretariat.

1995 (with M. Perkinson and C. Aikman)Fiscal Strategic Plan for the National Universityof Samoa. Client: National University of Samoa.

