TWO BOOKS OF TRAVEL

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2193, 4 July 1914, Page 9

TWO BOOKS OF TRAVEL

'"THE WILDS OF MAORILAND." 'Dr.-J. Macintosh Bell, .tho'author of 'Tho. Wilds of Maoriland" (Macniillan 4nd Co.), is .well known in tho Dominion, wh'cro for somo six or seven years ho occupied the important position of Director of tho Geological Survey, of New Zealand. Dr. 8011, who now resides in his native Canada, has. not. forgotten his many interesting experiences of life in tho less populated parts;of Now Zealand, and lias written a book which at once does credit to his powers of ob- ( 'serration and memory, and his not inconsidcrablo gifts of literary expression. For tho most part Dr. Beil's narrative does not deal with tho purely scientific sido of his studies and researches in tho.geology of tho Dominion. It is with tho superb scenery, tho picturesquo natural features of tho country, tho fascination of life in bush camps far 'away, very often, from towns, tho ioio do vivro of a young and. healthy, well-educated man, who is specially imbued with tho charm of open air life, that tho book is mainly concorned. Dr! Bell had special opportunities and facilities for visiting scenes far off tho ordinary' beaten track of the! average tourist, and although to. many New Zealanders his book may contain.'' eompariitivoly littlo .that''is now, tho volume, it must be remembered, is primarily and. intended, I tako it, for British ana American readers. 'To such it presonts many attractive- features, for tho author » fjiyes detailed descriptions of- maiiy districts n6t usually described in books of 'travel .dealing with Now Zealand. Tho first •tliapter is devoted to tho Far North, tho country botween Whangaroa Harbour.and' tlio north,':aftcr which Dr. Bell 'describes his . rambles' in '.tho Hauraki goldfiolds district. A description of the little^'isited'Mayor Island, twenty miles out from tho. mainland, in the.;, Bay of Plenty.' precedes an exceptiofljally interesting acMuht of.'tho author's exploration and scientific work in what'/Hochstctfer called;-.tho' Taupo V.ojcariic. Zone, 'witTt special reference to'.the author's-ascents of Ngauruhoo a.hd,.Ruapehu. : Trips- through■ tho 'UrivicYa,' Country; 'where Rim's settlement was 'visited; _'and in; tho wild country along 'tho coiirso of .tiro Karamca, aro next described,' succeeding cliaptors bc- ' ing beaded "The Heart of tho Southern ■ Alp's" and "Tho Great Douglas Glacier," tho.book closing with, a general account of tho geography and climate of tho Dominion. "As will be remembered by many readers, Dr. Bell, made, in 1909, somewhat' extensive explorations in tho vicinity of tho Franz.Josef Glacier. Of his experiences in this wild but superbly picturesque region, ho now givcs i a very entertaining description. Again, in nis description of his long and fascinating, ana not a littlo.arduous, exploration' work along tho. Copland and Douglas. Rivers, and .in thoTcuntry generally between tho mouths of tho Karajigarua River and tho Mueller,Glacier, Dr. Bell deals'with a region littlo known to tho- ' Now' Zealanders. ThroughoutJiis.,bpek r .hft wjjtcs with much modesty and good wimo'u'r, and as 'ho wisely eschews; 'as I'-li'avo" saTd, any excess* of purely scientific description, his pages, make. ons,v arid very pleasant reading for thoso to wl*m the tech-nical'iti6s;of'.geblogv-aro relatively a 6oaiQd, book. • A specially excellent featuro'of tho book is its wealth of illustration. In addition to a generous supply of illustrations of Now Zealand scenery from photographs supplied by tho Tourist Department, tho volume further contains a scries of very charming'coloured plates from originarwatcr-coionr drawings by tho author's brother : in-law, Mr. O.'.H. Eastlako, the well-known Canadian artist,, who spent parts of 1909 and 1910 with Dr. Bell in New Zealand. One or two of Mr. Eastlake's sketches, at least as they are reproduced, aro perhaps unduly impressionistic in style, but for tho most part thov aro adniirable'. Dr. Bell's book will, I trust, have'a In'rfio saloin tho : Old Country, for it.cannot fail to still further inefcaso New' Zealand's reputation as a .land of great natural beauties .of special and uncommon charmv (English • price, -'.16s:, lict.) round the world in a motor- •. car. ..:■ '■ tho title of. Mr. J. J, Mann's lively and interesting'account of' his globetrotting' experiences, "Round tho World iri a Motor-car" (G. licit and Sons; per WJhitcqmbo and' Tombs), is hardly'accurate, % For the nuthbr sends his car— a;l)elau'ni»y-Belle'viUe', 25 li.p.—long distances by "stcampt .'and; train. "As a matter: or "fact,"it is iTot uiitil wo havo read just a'hundred'pages of his nar- / ra'Uv'o,. thus : landing'- ourselves—alas, only in imagination—at Singapore, that we find . him' putting 'his car to .serious .use. It had- been, it may... .bo." added,. sent ' direct from 'Marseilles .to Calcutta, thero to' bej picked up by the author audi.his wifo. after a.pleasant trip,"by rail, .through Northern. India.. From Singapore Mr. Mann visited' several of tho smaller Malay States, and then took his car to Sumatra and Java, next journeying down to Western Australia and so on to Adelaide, In Western/Australia he did somo.motoring, but on arriving at Adelaide (by steamer) ho did not think it wise to tacklo the "ninoty-milo desert," .and his first long run in Australia was, from Melbourno to, Sydney. .Visiting Brisbane, ho heard 6iich bad: accounts of motoring across tho famous black-soil plains that ho put his car on tho train as far as Toowoomba and then motored on to, Sydney... In Now Zoaland, whero ho landed at Auckland ho used-tho car to take him to Rotorua, and theiico' motored to Napier and across Hawko's Bay to-"Packakarita" and so on to Wellington, when ho proceeded to Sj-dney to catch the Vancouver boat. In Canada ho seems to have only used tho car a.little at Winnipegi Although, however, Mr. Mann (who was accompanied by his wife) ma'do no specially long runs in tho various countries ;he visited, after .leaving India ho used his car for tho pur|x>so_ of making many short excursions. New Zealand motorists who read his very entertaining book will envy him some of his experiences. Tho author has an easy and• agreeible, if quite unpretentious, style, and when oneohe leaves India, tho main tourist routes of which at' least havo been so overdone in books of travel, he soon gains and retains tho interestof his readers. Quite tho best chapters 'in his book aro lliose which deal with the Malay States, Sumatra, and Java. In Sumatra, especially, ho went well off tho'beaten tourist track*, his descrintion .of'a visit to tho Battok Highlands,- inhabited by a primitive and very interesting race, being specially readable. Ilattokland appears to bo a man's paradise, all the work being accomplished by tho socalled weaker sex. Tho men, says Mr. Mann, spend their timo "mostly lying upon the platform of a specially reserved hut playing chess," which game, tho author thinks, they learned from tho Chineso centuries 'Die floor of tho hut is used as the-chess board, and large pieces of wood of different shapes act as chessmen. Tlio author was greatly takciv with Australia as a field for motoring; indeed, ho styles it tho "Paradiso of Motorists." Liko so many

other visitors, however, lie laments the discomfort of tlio average coloninl country hotel. In Canada he arrived in V inuipeg in October—just as tho frost began—and heard somo curious stories as to the winter life of thb people. But the Canadian is not nbovo a little "legpulling" on occasions, and surely -Mr. Mann was rather nulliblo when ho gathered and Solemnly recorded such "facts" as tho following:— No work can bo <lono; tho cattle, are collected into a corner of tho paddock where thero is a haystack, and they aro allowed to eat out of tho stack. Some of tho beasts get frozen in , , their tracks, and stand • thero without' morini; all thionuh tho winter, still, breathing, but when tho spring comes round and ■ thaws them they die.. Altogether, despite the fact that tho author piit.hiscar on 1 eleven different steamers and twice took it on long railway journeys, he travelled in it about ton thousand Guiles, and,it says much for tho quality of tho car and its careful handling by the owner that save for requiring a little touching up of the paint, it arrived in Kngland. lie says, in perfect condition. The book contains a largo number of illustrations, reproduced for tho most part from,photographs taken by tho author, ,o'rieo, 12s. Gd.) « v LIBER'S NOTEBOOK. A roviow of H. .G.Wclls's new story "Tho World Sot Free," will appear next week, ■ ' A .welcome addition' to tho Oxford Edition of Standard, Authors (Hum-, plirey Milfdrd) is a well-printed volume of "Poems;! , by Ralph' Waldo Emer«m. Emersop's teputation as a transceiidcntalistphilosopher is apt to overcloud tho valiio of his"poetical work, a special feature of which w'as its author's keen sympathy with and lovo of the beauties, of Nature. Thero is a simple charm nbout a poflin like his "'MmDay" which, despite tho occasional didactic touches, in the verse, makes tho poem, very pleasant 'reading. •• (Price, Is. 6d.) ~*-;. • George Moore, whose concluding vol«mo "Valo/'-'of thb'"Hail and 'Farewell trilogy, has been to well reviewed, lias not,'it appears,, definitely said good-hyo to his many admirers. lie is, I read, visitiny Palestine, and contemplates a book thereon. Tjie. author of Jho Mummer's; Wife"-and thb "ConfcssioUiof a Young Man" is.hardly tho mail oho would look to for a book on the--Holy Land. But although he inav oflc-nd not a few readers, thero is no denying thb charm-'of Moore's stylo, and in any case, to got away from his everlasting jibes at his. old Irish friends, will bo a relief. Personally, however, 1 should prefer Georgo Mooro on,'say, Moiitmartro to George Mooro on Jerusalem. ... - .' •

Jfonsigiior Robert-Hugh Bensonliks Ikwh telling : a Now York interviewer that "Weils has found Socialism, whilo beautiful in theory, to bo incompatible with human nature," and predicts that "id- tho !ogical;eoursb of events Wells will become a Catholic and a feudalist." Father llenson should read Wells's last book, "The. World Set Free," after which ho would probably modify tho above, rather silly prophecy. Tho lady writer who calls herself Victoria Cross , - informs tho leaders of T.l.'s Weekly that her somewhat notorious novel, "Anna Lombard," was refused, on ono ground or other, by •twenty, different tinns of publishers. When published, on commission, it sold very poorly for a time. But tho author' spent £250 on advertising it, and soon a "boom" commenced. A quarter of a million copies of tho book havo been sold. ■ G. P. "Psba.vV often irritates me by li:s posing, and especially by his continual 'fault-finding,-, but at lasf ono good xhiiig shull .bo..'accounted to him when iho .Recording .Angel dips up his many literary sins. For "G. 8.5," in his prefneo to his play, "Tho Dark Lady of the Sonnets" (which with two other plays, "Misalliance" and "Fanny's First Play" makes up his last published volume), discusses and "rejects tho conception of Shakespeare as tho idditerato nobody, of tho wild Baconian theory." J,oii>: may 0. B. "Pshaw" at tho Baconian;! I

Flora Annio Steel's new book, "Tlio Mercy of tho Lord t " published at tho end of May.by Hoinciriann's, is not a leng novel, but a collection of ehort stories. A three-decker would havo been ii'ore welcome,, but anything and everything from tho pert to which wo oho "On the Face of tho Waters" and "The Potter's Thumb"-should bo ■north reading. ••■■>,' Ono of tho best books on Old London that' has been .published for some timo is Canon Ditchfiold's "London Survivals" (Jlcthuen's). I hope to give a review next week. Constables aro publishing a collected edition of the works of that gift-cd young playwright, the lato Stanley Houghton, whose "Hindlo Wakes" ana "Tho Younger Generation" havo had suclf a success in' England. Alas, in Now Zealand, tho play-goer never cots a chanco of studying tho intellectual drama. Crude-melodrama of "Tho Worst Woman in London" order, or tho vulgar inanities of so-called "musical" comedy, aro tho limits of our choice When will each. principal city in tho Dominion havo its own Independent Theatro Society, such as Adclaido has eot?

Thero are now "Cubist" pooms as well as the "Cubist" monstrosities which their deluded painters choose to stylo pictures. Ono Jinx Weber, for Instance, is responsible for a book of "Cubist Poems,'.' published by Elkin Matthows at a modest shilling. What is a' Cubist poem? Well, I can't exactly toll yon, but here is the "cubist poet in his cubist mood," as a writer in an English journal puts it:— Cubes, cube?,' cul>es, cubes, Hijh, low and high, and higher, higher, Far, far out, out, out, far, Planes, planes, plaries, Colours, lights, signs, whistles, bolls, signals, colours, TMonej, planes, planes, T,y">, eye*, window eyes, eye, eye*. No'trils,•nostrils, chimney nostrils, llrcathing, burning.- pulling, Thrillnu, piiflinpr, breathing, puffing-. Millions of tilings upon tliin.qs, Billions of things upon things This for the eye. the eye of beinp At the cduo of t.lje Hudson, Flowin?, timeless, endless-, On, on, on, on . . . Tiie above is an extract, from a poem entitled "The Eye Moment." What it is all about is beyond my comprehension, but it sounds something liko what Walt Whitman might havo written had ho bad delirium tremens. I om afraid tho "now" poetry is not for old fogies liko "Liber.