British New Guinea. (Association copy, inscribed for conchologist Charles Hedley of the Australian Museum)

London : George Philip & Son ; Brisbane : Alexr. Muir & Morcom, 1892. First edition. Large octavo (230 x 165 mm), publisher’s gilt-decorated maroon cloth over boards (lightly rubbed), spine lettered in gilt (sunned); a significant association copy, with a presentation inscription on the verso of the front free-endpaper by the author for conchologist Charles Hedley of the Australian Museum, Sydney: ‘To Charles Hedley, Esquire, F.LS., with the kind regards of J. P. Thomson. 29.11.92’; tipped in on the first blank is a 1-page autograph note from Thomson addressed to Hedley at the Museum, on the letterhead of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia (Queensland branch), dated 28.11.92: ‘My dear Mr. Hedley, As slight recognition of your most valuable contribution to “British New Guinea” your acceptance of the accompanying copy of that work is most solicited by your grateful friend, (signed) J. P. Thomson’; pp. xviii, 336, 4 pp publishers’ advertisements, with 9 plates (including frontispiece) and 40 in-text illustrations, large folding colour map of New Guinea at rear; occasional spotting, otherwise internally very good; from The Papuan Collection of Charles Fletcher (Melbourne), his bookplate to the front free-endpaper.

From the ADB:

‘James Park Thomson (1854-1941), geographer and public servant, was born on 20 June 1854 and baptized on 23 July at Unst, Shetland Islands, Scotland, eldest son of Lawrence Thomson, farmer, and his wife Joan, née Park. Educated at the local parish school, at the age of 18 he took up seafaring, visited the United States and South America between 1872 and 1874 and then learned the rudiments of marine engineering at Glasgow. In 1876 Thomson visited New Zealand and from 1877 spent two years working with surveyors in New South Wales. Securing an appointment in Fiji, he was registered as a land surveyor in March 1880: his work was comprehensive, thorough and accurate. In 1882 he also supervised observations of the transit of Venus; his fascination with astronomy was to continue into his retirement when he established a private observatory in Brisbane.

Leaving Fiji in 1884, Thomson travelled the South Pacific before joining the Queensland Department of Public Lands as a draftsman in 1885. From his base in Brisbane he computed the trigonometrical survey of the colony. In 1885 he founded the Queensland branch of the (Royal) Geographical Society of Australasia; he was its honorary secretary, president (1894-97) and edited its Journal. He was involved in discussions that led to the formation of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science. Thomson wrote well over two hundred scientific papers and was instrumental in the adoption of the zonal system for reckoning time. In 1900 the Queensland branch of the R.G.S.A. named its foundation medal after him and he was its first recipient in 1901. Other honours included the Peek award from the R.G.S., London (1902), and an honorary LL.D. from Queen’s University at Kingston, Ontario, Canada (1903).’