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Preface
This book has its origins in a long-standing interest in Sir Arthur Gordon's administration in Fiji and the Western Pacific and in the actions of some of his lieutenants and close friends who were governors in Papua and West Africa. His status in Pacific history and in the wider imperial context of administrative methods in plural societies has retained its importance over the last century, though there have been some critical revisions of his work in particular posts—notably Fiji and Ceylon (Sri Lanka).
More immediately, this book arises from the themes explored in Patrons, Clients, & Empire. Chieftaincy and Over-rule in Asia, Africa and the Pacific (2003) that investigated the application of a model from the social sciences to the politics and administration of a wide variety of British and other territories. There were limitations to such an application according to the structure of leadership, or its absence, in colonial societies; and they certainly applied in self-governing colonies by the middle of the nineteenth century. The topic of imperial patronage operating within the networks between the metropolis and colonial governments and societies has been acknowledged, but not explored very far in the administration of crown