First Contact: New Guinea's Highlanders Encounter the Outside World

New York: Viking, 1987. Illustrated, large octavo, pp xii, 317, very clean internally, original cloth-backed boards, in a very good dustwrapper. [Mick Leahy with Mick Dwyer walked across New Guinea in 1930 and disproved the prevailing opinion that the interior of the island was unpopulated. In 1931, together with his brother Patrick, he explored the Kukukuku land. Mick and his brother Danny were leaders of the 1933 expedition into the Western Highlands. He also made two pioneering airplane flights into the western highlands, discovering the Wahgi Valley, taking thousands of photographs and movie film. Leahy believed in his right to go anywhere in New Guinea, in pursuit of gold, and he was accorded the right to penetrate the Highlands by the Administration. His diaries record that he and his party were responsible for 41 deaths between 1930 and 1934. In 1936, revelations of these deaths led to an inquiry, led by ADO (Assistant District Officer) Jim Taylor. He concluded that Leahy had acted in self-defence, and viewed such deaths as inevitable if prospectors were afforded the right to explore territories beyond the control of the colonial authorities. The book takes a critical look at this history, but probably not critical enough by today's standards.]. First Edition. Cloth-backed boards. Very Good/Very Good.