The Dominion. SATURDAY, AUGUST 14, 1909. NEW ZEALAND IN PRINT.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 586, 14 August 1909, Page 4

The Dominion. SATURDAY, AUGUST 14, 1909. NEW ZEALAND IN PRINT.

There has just been issued from the Government Printing Office as valuable a book as has ever been published in New Zealand. ;The title on the cover is Bibliography of New Zealand ■ Literature, a condensation that is certain to mako the foreigner who meets' the' volume sit straight up in his surprise that this young country should have. been so 1 fruitful .in authors as to require over 600 large pages of print for .the enrolment of their productions. The title-pago, however, correctly states the.contents of the volume,, which is, A Bibliography of the literature relating to New Zealand. The author is Dr. Hocken, of Dunedin, who has. devoted many years oi labour and research to the 'compilation now before us. v It will Burprise the average New Zealander, as no doubt it surprised Dr. Hocken when he had got well upon his way, that , the literature relating to this country is "not ! only unusually interesting, but is, unusually extensive": "From the time when Tasman first placed on the map of the globe,that streak, so like a note of interrogation, which announced his discovery of New Zealand, thore has attached to it ran unabated and curious interest. . To him it. was ' the Ultima Thule of the i world, and it represented a part of that I geographical will-o!-the-wisp, ; the Terra Australia, Incognita, - which so long engaged the '.quarrelsome, controversies of [ the learned in their attempts to provide l for tho due balance of the globe itself." A more ,fascinating'thing than this chronological list (if papers, books, let-' ters, speeches, sermons, and: pamphlets— numbering several thousands altogetherit would be difficult to find. They are something more than the raw material of history—they: are history itelf; for Dr. Hocken -has not only, given the title pages in full, preserving a strict chronology throughout, but has added in most cases a few words of illuminating summary or description. The, result of a conscientious 1 reading is to produce: exactly, that sense of well-lit: rapid transit through' the years', .which' is left for a. good short history. By far the bulk of the entries relate to the work of the historians, the politicians, a,nd; the; Scientists.; "New Zealand literature*"..in the ordinary sense of the word, occupies a, very .I smail, portion of Dr.. Hooken's pages. -.< ■ ■ The first thing which strikes us in this valuable'work is\the fondness, of the early colonists' for political . controversy,and their zeal in' issuing their views on current topics in the form of vigorous little; pamphlets; Of all the pamphleteers and letter-writers, E. G.VWakefield is easily i the chief. He • wrote short , political treatises on social subjects and on crime when in Newgate Gaol. He poured-forth oceans of publications ufon his colonisation proposals. He was' almost ceaselessly engaged in combat ;with' high authorities. A brilliant '.writer and, thinke'rV'of a; kind whioh scems to away in these lighter.: and ; lazier ' times. But he was only one.6f;;iriany : .earnesfc nien engaged in circulating: their, judgments. ;i :Tlie vogue of the pamphlet is not. hard to understand. Newspapers were long'in coming to birth in New. Zealand, and they were vory few until well on in the second half of : the"-'nineteenth century.' And so the pamphlet 'was 'necessary. . The first newspaper printed in the Country was The New Zealand Gazette, issued on April 18, 1840;. and the second was The New Zealand, Advertiser, first , published- in , the Bay "of Islands district 'on June 15, '1840, and "virtually .suppressed" - by the Government ■ in December of >' that ■ year 'through the ; freedom of its criticism.'.'The first- book published in 'the colony had appeared in 1836, :a little eight-page pamphlet recording the formation of tho New Zealand Temperance Society. In tho same .year there: had appeared in London a small treatise on New Zealand flax, printed on paper made from the leaves oi plwrmium teim-x. -

It' is. only recently that experiments have " been '' seriously made .. a view : to . testing , .the . convertibility of our. flax into printing paper.. It, is impossible to give a'consecuv tive survey of Bibliography, and our reference to detail must-be restricted to noting some' of the , most individually; ■interesting of the. entries. The parly voyagers, it appdars, suffered to some , extent" from the surreptitious publication of the journals of their, men and officers, who managed to ( get their books out ahead of the official records'. ' The first .appear- 1 ance of the moa in print was in Owen's paper on "a fragment of a femur of a gigantic bird of New Zealand," read before the Zoological Socioty on November 12, 1839. It was . in 1849 that the . first considerable plea for real self-government was put forward, the advocate being, as one might expect,- E. G. Wakefield. The first magazine published in New- Zealand appeared in 1850, but lite many early magazines it "perished early for ,want of support. Life was too much a practical reality for the cultivation of formalliterature, as . was discovered by: the founders of the New Zealand Quarterly Review, which was born, and died, in ,1857, ."its death being . hastened by . the heaviness of its articles—war with Russia, education in the colony, Tennyson's poems, and tfie like. It . was . indeed a poor age for journalists,, even, quarterly journalists., 'That progress was being made, however, is borne in on us by occasional very suggestive entries. For example, a volume issued in 1850 advocated steamer, connection between England and the colonies, The Brand Booh for Canterbury, printed in Ohristchurch in 1861, showed that there wero then 250 sheep-owners in the province. A sad little page or two recbrds the many hopeless attempts to produce an Antipodean Equivalent of London Punch:" A suggestion of special interest to ub just now was made in 1866' by Mr. 0. F. Hursthouse, a' pamphleteer ; almost iib prolific as Wakefield, This was nothing less than "the incorporation of Britain's colonial into her Homo ; Einpiro,", and tho admission- of colonial] ■ representatives to the House of Commons. If two 1 Taranaki gentlemen who 1 wroto in 1855 had had their way, the teat of government; would have been in isjow Plymouth. Vpry iu- , teresting it is to note how, after the barren epoch of discovery, and the epoch of tho missions, [the gradual , development , of govoramaat through vary. Btaimy days

brings quite familiar names into the record. By the 'seventies wo are fairly amongst men of the present day. Sir Robert Stout is preaching advanced Radical doctrines. Professor (Captain) Hutton, who died a year or two ago, is already busy with his scientific researches, Bracken is writing his homely lays. Bishop Nevill is maintaining that the New Zealand Church Constitution is independent of that at Home. And Sir George Grey, who .dominates all the mid-century, is Premier. As we approach the present day, the Bibliography grows less and less interesting, but as the years pass the limit of interest will advance. One day, no doubt, to-day's books will have their turn. •

Turning to the subjective, literature of New Zealand, we find that thcro ia certainly a-tremendous array of poets. The 'separate index devoted to verse contains' tho names of 150 writers., With the oxcoption ■of Wall, Misb 'Bauohan,' and' Adams, howover, none of'our present-day verse-writers is likely to have any long or any wide repute. Of.the writers of an earlier day the famo of all except Hoiine and Domett has passed away. Dr. Hocken, in his introduction, falls into a common error in assuming that '"the bright skies, exhilarating climatc, and glorious scenery of New Zealand" should give birth to ' painters, poets, and novelists. Experience has clearly proved that art is racial in.its origin, and bursts into expression only after the'long racial : fermentation has subsided, to quiescence in settled conditions. But Dr! Hooken is on qiiito sound ground in his surmise that the non-appearance of the New Zealand poet is due to the distracting effect of-the nation's just-ending ''struggle with the hardships of colonial life," It is for the; same reason that our artists' work is almost 'wholly' objective—and mediocro into the bargain. . In taking leave of Dr. Hocken's volume, we have to compliment him Upon the enormous industry and care which he has expended in producing a work of rare value and importance, and upon the almost invariably excellent judgment with which he has framed his explanatory - notes. With this fine Bibliography to work upon, it should now "be a modetately easy 'task to compile extensive bibliographies of the litora-. ture relating to New Zealand arranged according to subjects, as an extension of Dn. Hooken's magnificent index. 4 v