[NEW GUINEA; MISSIONS] Ita eda lohiabada bona hahemauri Iesu Keriso ena taravatu matamata.

[=The New Testament in Motu]. Cover title: Taravatu Matamata. London British and Foreign Bible Society, 1935. First edition. Small octavo (170 mm), black cloth limp covers (a few light marks) with stamped lettering to front, pp 510; a near fine copy; from The Papuan Collection of Charles Fletcher (Melbourne), his bookplate to the inside front cover.

This is the first edition of the second translation of the New Testament into Motu, made by R. Lister-Turner and J. B. Clark. The first translation, prepared for the London Missionary Society by the Congregationalist missionary W. G. Lawes, was first published in 1891.

Motu (sometimes called Pure Motu or True Motu to distinguish it from Hiri Motu) is a Central Papuan Tip language that is spoken by the Motuans, an indigenous ethnic group of Papua New Guinea centred around the Port Moresby region.

Trove locates only one copy of the 1935 edition (SLNSW); a second edition was published in 1946.