NEW BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 11478, 10 January 1903, Page 8

NEW BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS.

NEW ZEALAND IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY."

It is gratifying, as an evidence of the attention which New Zealand is now receiving in the outside world, to find that the conductors of the admirable "Nineteenth Century Series' 1 - should have deemed th_ history of this colony of sufficient importance to devote to it one of their volumes. It is also alike pleasing and appropriate that the writing of the work has been entrusted to two New Zealand graduates, Messrs R. F. Irvine, M.A., and 0. T. J. Alpers, MA. The former deals with the history of New Zealand up to the year 1870, and Mr A.pers writes Part H., which deals Wjith event, and legislation subsequent to 1870. Mi Irvine naturally has tne advantage in having to treat the most, romantic and picturesque period, of our history—tlie story ot the ancient .Maori, the "coming of tlie white man, the lives of the picsneers, the Maori wars, and so forth. He has selected his material, judiciously, and woven it into a picturesque narrative," which is very pleasant to read. Mr It-vine lias not content*.! himself with a dry compilation of everts, but has aideavouied to lepioduce a picture of theiiie of tne colony in its .successive fctagis. We may mention, "as an instance of what we une_._, his description of the hands employed at tha whaling ami sea.ing stations in New Zealand, during the fir*t forty years of the last century. Tiny lived, he tells us, a munot'Onotis existence, exiles from more civilised resorts, and lioni slaves to tlie merchants who employed them, and paid for their labours in rum, slops, and tobacco. These merchants, hailing mostly from Sydney, made for years great piofits out of the wlulling indusUy. The wages of the station bonds cost' them very little, the nun and tobacco being of the vilest and cheapest, although their nominal price to the whalers was high, and once tlie men were landed at tiie .settlement, there was little chance of their being ab.e to escape. They were paid in kind, and mast of them were in. a, ohronic Mate of indebtedness to their employers. "During 'tlie season, Mar until " October, life on the station was full of bustle, some were engaged in killing the whales and others occupied in preserving the oil—no dainty business. The try works consisted of large iron boilers, in which the blubber, cut into manageable lumps, was boiled. It was a curious scene l —a whaling Btttlement in the busy time when "Sunday never came into the bay.'' Muscular unshaven white men, reeking of oil, aided by brown men in every conceivable type of drees, kept the furnaces going with wood and scrag, or cub slabs of blubber from carcases of whales raised out of the water by means of sheers, or headed casks of oil and rolled them to tlie storehouse to await the arrival of vessels from Sydney. The ground was saturated with oil, and tlie stench was indescribable; but these hurly, half-savage whalers were to the manner born, and throve inspire of stench and oil, and a species of rum that was death to the unseasoned." Mr Irvine gives a vivid description of the Saturnalia that took place when the arrival cf the vessels marked "pay-day" for tlie hands, the wages being credited to them :u ;;vog, tobacco, and clothes. He is careful to add that there were exceptions to (he carousers, and of the class as a whole he says: — "Whatever were their siiGrteomin.-js, the whalers were at least a manly and hospitable race. They familiarised the Maoris with European customs, taught them many useful arts, and established with them a 'camaraderie' which resulted* in mutual respect, and did a great deal to make straight the paths of the future colonists." The fact that Mr Alpers has a much less romantic period to deal with than his er.l ea.-ue, makes it all the more to his credit that he, too, has written in such an interesting style that there is not a dull pairs in his bU-iy, even when he is dealing with such prosaic subjects _s the land laws, or the Arbitration Act. We have to find grave fault, however, with the want of care or want of judgment with which he u•■_ collected anil .marshalled many of has 'facts. With the most serious case—his extraordinary perversion of -the Te Whiti affair and Mr Bryce's native policy we have dealt elsewhere. An account of the land laws and land settlement in New Zealand can hardly ba considered complete which merely mentions the name of Mr Rolleston once as a Liberal and a land reformer, but gives no account of his work. In minor matters, moreover, Mr Alpers sometimes betrays a surprising want of accuracy. For example (p. 431), he states that "the honour of attaining the summit of Aorangi (Mount Cook, 12,349 ft), fell to an American mountaineer (FitzGerald) in 1894." Mr FitzGerald, as a matter of fact, never cJirnibed Mount Cook. The New Zealand writer of a New Zealand history ought to know that the honour of first reaching the actual summit of Mount Cook belongs to two nativeborn New Zealandera, Messrs Fyfe and Jack Clarke, who performed the feat at Christmas,-1894, just previous to Mr FitzGerald's arrival. It is, however, a pleasanter task to turn to the good features of Mr Alpers s work. He gives an excellent sketch of our recent legislation, showing every desire to be strictly impartial towards those from whom he differs. The chapters devoted to "The Progress of Education," "Art, Science and Literature," "The Maori at the End of the Century," and "The Island Race," are, for the most part, excellently done. The chapter 1 on "Ait, Science and Literature," is a lifct'.e sketchy, but that headed "The Maori at the End of the Century" gives the best and most sympathetic account of the young Maori party that we Jiave yet seen. (Toronto and Philadelphia: The Linsoott Publishing Company. London and-Edin-burgh: W. and R. Chambers. Christchurch: Whitcombe and Tombs).

One of tlie cleverest and most amusing books which we have read of late is "The Adventuies of M. d' Haricot," purporting to be "translated from the original French, by J- Stoier Clouston." The hero is a French Royalist, a young and enthusiastic member of the "Une Deux Trois League," or U.D.T.'s, as they 'styled themselves— in brief, the forlorn hope of Royalty in France. Their conspiracy having miscarried, he seeks refuge in , England, where he meets with the most exciting and withal humorous adventures. He commences well by being arrested for burglary in the house of a portly, stodgy British citizen named Fisher, and successfully getting out of this scrape, he is transported almost as if by magic into country house life and more 01 less fashionable society in England. In order to better equip himself for this new phase in his career he engages as his man a London 'bu.sdriver, known as "Halfred"T' who, it appears, had in his youth been a "buttons" and subsequently "servant to a gentleman what hadvertised for a, honest young man, hexperience being no bobject." The humours of "Halfred" and still more of his master, the lively sketches of character among the personages with whom they aie thrown in contact, and tlie art .with which the most improbable situations are triumphantly carried through, combine to keep the reader's attention stimulated and amused from start to finish. (Edinburgh and Louden: William Blackwood and Sons* Christchurch : Whitcombe and Tombs, 2s 6d.) Anot.ier book which may be cordially recommended to the laughter-loving reader is "A Bayard from Bengal," by F. Anstey. It is aptly described by its sub-title, as "Some account of the magnificent anfl spanking career of Chunder Bindabun i>ncsh, Esq., 8.A., Cambridge, by Hurry Bungsho Jabberjee, 8.A., Calcutta University, author of 'Jottings and Titjlings,' etc., etc., to which is appended the parables and proverbs of Piljosh, freely translated from the original Styptic by another hand, with introduction, notes and appendix by the abewe. Hurry Bungsho Jabberjee, B.A" It i.'i --somewhat on the same lines as Al. Haricot, except that it deals with the adventures of a, Hindu barrister in England instead of those of a French Royalist refutree. Mr Anstey has given us a delicious mutation of.Babu English, and Mr Bhosh's adVenturea are even more surprising than those of M. d'Haricot, seeing that they culminate in his winning the l>erby with a runaway horse Belonging to a "milk chariot"

which he purchased for twenty pounds (from the "milk vendor," the "chariot" being in* eluded in the bargain. The fun of the book is very much helped by the quaint drawings of Mr Bernard Partridge, whose identity ie appropriately veiled under the stylo and title of "Birnadhur Pahtridhji," arid \v_& is supposed by the author to be a young native artist engaged by his publishes, from motives of economy. (London: Methuen's Colonial Library. Christchurch: Whitcombe and Tombs. 2s 6d.)