Richard Parkinson (1846-1907) a German national of English descent, went to Samoa in 1878 to work for the trading company J.G. Godeffroy und Sohn. In 1879 he married Phoebe Coe, sister of Emma Coe (later known as 'Queen Emma') and joined 'Queen Emma' in New Britain in 1882. A successful coconut planter with botanical, entomological, ethnological and ornithological interests, he wrote Dreissig jahre in der Sudsee: land und leute, sitten und gebrauche im Bismarck archipel und auf den deutschen Salomoninseln, published in Stuttgart by Strecker & Schroder in 1907, the year of his accidental death. The published German original is widely available. Several unpublished English translations exist, among them the two microfilmed here. For further information see the Bureau's newsletter, Pambu Ser.3(3) 1989 and Ser.3(4) 1989.

Reel 1: Thirty years in the South Sea, the country and the people: habits and customs in the Bismarck Archipelago and on the German Solomon Islands, by R. Parkinson ... 1907, translated from the German by H.A. Thompson (1922) (viii, 102 pp.). Contents page, author's preface, editor's preface, text parts I-VII, separately paged typescript with corresponding page number of the original typed in margins.<BR>AND pp 1-515 of - Thirty years in the South Seas: The Bismarck Archipelago, natives and customs, by Richard Parkinson ... 1907, translated and edited by N.C. Barry, (n.d.) (1), 648, (10)pp. Typescript with contents page and unnumbered part IX in a typeface differing from the rest of the text. Part I = Part XI (Discovery and early history). Does not include prefaces. Corresponding page number of original pencilled at head of text.<P>Reel 2: N.C. Barry translation concluded. Pages 516 - 648, (10)pp.