NEW BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17121, 16 April 1921, Page 7

NEW BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS.

m.* nrp=<?nt unrestin India lends adJITISmst to "Th. Elephut ■ for though a numher of tne cluef Indents in Mr Gordon Casserley s boos never happen outside its covers, I nlilps arising from unrest and sedi'S wbich British officials in India may tie experiencing. Tho scene is laid Bhutan border, whence X authorities expect an invasion of Sdia by border tnbes, Chinese, and films into Eastern Bengal which is tonevcombed with sedition; the heodrtSartcrs of the conspiracy Sfeing the JSco of the Rajah of the small native /date df Lalpuri, as thoroughpaced a Lnndrel as all India holds. We get Sm of We on the tea plantations, at Simla, and in squalid palaces, or 1 lort in the great Terai jungle, and of • «»tive ways drawn by one who evidently S OW s India well and whose fertile imagination enables him to present a ■ «ries of exciting occurrences with apparent fidelity. But only the very Sedulous reader can believe that any mill could ever exercise the influence iget wild elephants that the hero, a British officer, Major Kevin Dermot, g&iblishes through the agency of Bad- ' shah, a giant ■■ single-tusker, which he Yejcues. from the crueltios of a mahout, irtjis animal, never before handled by a ' 'Hiito man, becomes his faithful satel- ' fife, and at different times when his jjiwter is hard pressed Badshah, which, *■ witli Dermot, is accorded god-like qualit hy the superstitious natives,'clears w into the jungle and reappears in tho jjfck of time at the head of an army of jnld elephants who proceed to stamp ' assailants into the ground and Ipbr them to pieces, jt is really Badjjuh who in this fashion breaks the jgvanon and enaßles Dermot to marry {fie English girl who has been the object dfclie Rajah's gross desires. It is a / tribute to Mr Casserley's ability that . tte incredible nature of the incidents W-describes does not prevent the reader tfliile thtilled by them. (London: yjbUip Allan and Co. Christchurch: and Tombs.) j"Barent Greighton," by Don! Cameron is one of those _ novels which sotr somewhat too "clearly the influence of another Writer.. We Jif pot say that it' would never Have, (been written if Jeffrey Farnol had never published "The Amateur. ■r.ijfjai" but anyone, who has read the letter must be convinced that Mr Sbaler if an admirer of Mr Farnol. He might fily have gone to a worse master for le and design. ' Barent Creighton ifi !a yonng man of old New York, who. Sfter having lost all his money in a , jb'&siness venture,, is left 5000 acres in ; iMist for his wife. As he is a, bachelor ■' tho bequest does not promise to enable ' him to escape the imminent fate of Being gaoled for aebt. : A landowner, • .-whose estate marches jwith > the land and tfho wants to add it to his own property, offers Creighton his daughter for wife, witlr 3«l,OO0' dollars - thrown in. Creighton is on his ..way. to make the 1 . 'acquaintance''of this, unknown lady> whom he is willing to marry, when ne • !raeets a beautiful girl who tells him i)iat she is escaping',from a forced mar- ,* fiage with a mail. . she detests, though she- nofc know him. Any experienced novel-reader having reached this stage will realise that the beautiful fugitive and the daughter of the grasping' landowner are one and the same; {and also that thj6 authpr. cantfot" afford ltd bring pff' a happy omarriage at once. ■'•Both have first to pass throngh adven- . ftureSj among them some of the ■ iiwident»'',rf''.''iih'- .anti-rent taove-

. -merit amongruraltenanta. Eventually, I of course, matters end as, they: should.. ft ijpho story is' weir told, and Mr Shaler t. jfocceeds in convoying- into his pages . !much of the spirit-of the times of .which: : /he r writes. ,- ■(Christchurch: Whitoombe t jii Those f who'* liayemadethe aoquaintf' of&aigKennedy, fhe scientiat.-de- , fiiectiv*©; -whose J Mr. A;* B : haavT?Jm>nicled in eorpral novels, •&.: ilo,4otfl&b welcome Mr Beeve's new ~ book, "The Treasure! Train." It is |V MgHt ,to 's^^thai;althbugh.■ Kennedy is y'ypiore .astute than ever in .finding the y^of4^(^i^» ; OTbugnt to r his crea^r : is.beootaiiig played out. .each story tfcqd procedure ia tlfe v|«une.''A crime is under way, Kennedy -i Hsoonsttlted, the charactersin the piece inposition, Kennedy. some new and hazily-describ-the parties areassem;«ad ? Kennedydelivers a ' giiaai--y Ssbieidtifio - lecture, winding up with a Ifi-lbe ftprson one would 100 often it remains far from j the accused person has been;. >ut one is to assume that' ft intuitions ,are, alwayß de-'. f]Noti as one says to oneself, ittera, for the peoplo 'in the use no emotion in tne'jreader. XOhrwti : > qa-.wUl jJ>d very glad to know fasting Jones/ in collaboraMr A."T. ; Barthol<finew, lias n annotated catalogue oIF the iectfon-'.at St. John's, College, collection has been bijHtup since 1917, and Mr. collection complete fife is able to do so. As, new r translations of Butler's «ar *and further books are referring 'to him',, these will sd,-.and Mr Jones invites everywhere to Assist in the the catalogue there are re--' two photographs. of Butler inpublished, we think). One in and the other in mbridge.' There "are 81 items' b of pictures; sketches, arid n the collection, The list of* iting wholly or in to surprisingly and pleasingly the collection of effects formpersonal property of Butler i has been very thorough., in ; his friend) is curious and Most interesting of all, pere list of the books in Butler's y. There are less than 80 and they make a collection l itself a general footnote to' writing. (Gameffer arid Sons.)' NOTES.jacket of "Over, this Fireolume of essays by Mr Richone .of the writers- for .'-The; onie critics, not of the first quoted as speaking of the a "geUius.". Mr Kin^writes übject that comes into his chattels away generally in er: "Far more than the Big e % the Teeny Weeny *Little :h more quioKly divide lovers. may conveiuently overlook bat; her husband poisoned his in ordej to marry her, when .t ignorq the perpetual .exch no give 9 her of the, truth i finds.some evil still for idle '.do- —by . always picking his [His is the shallow sprightlithe readers of "The Tatler" 1 Mf . King gives it to them. lest measure. Sometimes he mselt, and opens one of his. ith a. quotation from, say, W. . One thinks of the discomfort dement of '.'The Tatter's'-' ben they find their friend lem with such a.bouquet. But omfort does not last* long, drops : the bouquet Quickly, es hisfriends' anxiety bj be- j

SOME NOVELS*

coming his usual self. "I suppose," so ho opens his causerio on "Our 'Secret Escapes'," "I suppose that we all of us have our own little secret 'dreairisanctuary'—our way of escape *hicn nobody" knows anything about, and hv which we go when we are weary of the trivialities of the domestic hearth and sick unto death of the 'cackle-cackle of the crowds." There is discouragement in the thought that Mr King is the "way of escape" for the readers; 01 "The Tatler." The one good thing about this tiresome book is the fact that fifty per cent, of the author's profit will be handed over to the National Library of the Blind. (London: John Lane. Christchurch: Whitcombe and Tombs, Ltd.)

During 1919 and 1920 a notable feature of the Trade Supplement of ' The Times" was a series of "Talks with Workers"—short aitides dealing simply, clearly, and soundly with the facts of modern and economic These articles were widely circulated in leaflet form, and they have now been collected into a small volume, which deserves a very large public. Economic science is very tar from being dry, but its principles are too rarely explained in a form suitable to the needs" of ordinary people. In "Talks to Workers" they are explained in the'simple and practical language which a very good lecturer would use to' a class of workmen. The authors have succeeded admirably in making clear the interdependence of Labour, Capital, and Brain. (Loudon: Sir Isnac Pitman and Sons. Christchurch : Whitcombe and Tombs, Ltd.)