Napoleon of the Never-Never

New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 791, 17 September 1954, Page 23

Napoleon of the Never-Never

EN Detective-Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte dons the kadaitcha boots -the boots of vengeance that leave no footprints in the bush-listeners can be assured that justice will be done. Patiently, relentlessly, Napoleon Bonaparte, the half-caste aboriginal detective, hunts down criminals in the huge expanse of backblocks Australia. He is a man of two worlds, for he combines the polish of a white man’s University education with the black man’s knowledge of bush lore and_ tracking. "Boney" has tremendous faith in his ability to solve difficult cases, but his sensitiveness to his half-caste status is such that he believes that if he fails

to solve a case he will lose his faith | in himself and become a _ tribeléss nomad. Ininja the Avenger, then, is an unusual (you might say, off-beat) crimedetection series. Bonaparte’s creator, the noted Australian author Arthur Upfield (see also page 28), has set his stories in the real Australian outback, from the goldfields of the West to the pearl-fisheries of Broome, from the cattle-stations of the Northern Territory to the, wheatlands of the South. "Ininja" is the’name given by the aboriginals to a party of vengeance despatched against those who have broken any of the sacred tribal laws, but white men also who have broken the law must expect to face the vengeance of Detective Inspec-

tor Bonaparte. Upfield has created an interesting blend of cultures and personalities in his stories: for example, Dickinson, the quaint old derelict with a philosophic turn of mind; Johnno, a cheerful Malay taxi-driver with a craze for speed; Bill Lung, out of Broome’s Chinatown. The producers of Ininja the Avenger have employed a special cast, comprising well-known players from several States, with George Fairfax as the famous detective. The incidental music was composed by William Flynn, and the proeramme produced by Walter Pym under the personal direction of Morris West, of Australasian Radio Productionshimself the author and producer of many Australian radio features. Ininja the Avenger, in which each episode is a complete story, is being broadcast from 2YD on Tuesdays at 8.30 p.m.