"FIVE YEARS UNDER THE SOUTHERN CROSS."

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2498, 26 June 1915, Page 9

"FIVE YEARS UNDER THE SOUTHERN CROSS."

' In a handsomely-produced volume entitled "Five Years Dnder the Southern Cross" (Cassell and Co.; per Whitcombo and Tombs, Ltd.), the Rev. F. C. Spurr, a Baptist ministor, now co-pastor with the Rev. Dr. F. B. Meyer, of Regent's Park, London, records his experiences and impressions of Australian life as jhe found it during Lis five years' residence in tho Commonwealth. A special feature of the book is the author's description, of _ the religious activities of ■the communities of which ho was a temporary member, but Mr. Spurr does not neglect other matters, such as the social ■ana political life of the Australians, tibeir amusements, and the great national resources, industries, and the scenic attractions of the Commonwealth. He : ®eems to have travelled from one end of the Continent to another, and his descriptions of up-country life are just es vivid and entertaining as are his verbal pictures of the mini features of such great cities as Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, and Brisbane. Ho is specially insistent upon the splendid opportunities which the Commonwealth offers to the sober and industrious and capable immigrant from the crowded cities of the Old World, but does not diuguise his disappointment that certain unpleasant features of Old World life should have been transplanted in Australia. Quite naturally, as a minister of religion, he deplores the national iVice of gambling, but his book is laudably free from anything like perfervid sermonising, and on the whole it is clear he considers the Australia'n is 'a .very fine fellow, ;nd likely to improve rather than become decadent. The author spent some months in Tasmania, end it is evident ho holds the scenery and _ climate of the island state iii special favour. The most serious problem,, so Mr. Spurr considers, that Australia has to face is that of tho probable influence of the "Neapolitan eliminate," which he considers is producing i "a Neapolitan typo of men and women." l.i Whether the book was written before ;the war I cannot say, but if so, certain opinions expressed by the author, in his concluding chapter, upon the subject of .compulsory military service, would, today, I fancy, hardly be confirmed by their writer. The book should please 'Australians, for even when the author blames he is never unfair. For the outside world Mr. Spurr provides a very useful and interesting survey of the leading features of Australian life.

RUSSIA'S CIFT TO THE WORLD. The average Englishman has been— especially before tho war—much too apt to remember the Voltairean sneer at Russia—grattez 1© Russe et yous trousverez le Tartare—and, as he perhaps may have, added as a supplementary private thought—"le barbare" 1 But Maurice Baring and other writers have done much to dispel tho old ideas, and especially is Russian literature coming t9 its own now .that the British and Russian troops are fighting in tho same cause. In a little pamphlet entitled "Russia's Gift to the World" (Hod'der and Stoughton, 2d.), Professor J. iW. Mackail warmly eulogises the humanity and natural kindliness of the Russian character. He says:— She is moro of a child than England or France or Germany. Like a child, she is overflowing with understanding and sympathy, but she is not what growii-up people call practical. The Russian character is very sensitive, and .ivith its sensitiveness there is a cer-. tain lack of hard fibre. According to universal testimony, the Russian nature is humane and kindly beyond that of most Western nations. It has cultivated, by native instinct and under the pressure of historical circumstances, the virtues of patience and resignation to a degree which amounts to a weakness, if a beautiful weakness. Like a child, it hears no grudge, .but it is easily discouraged, because it has not. jet "found itself." Russian literature, especially Russian fiction, is becoming increasingly familiar to and popular with English readers, thanks to tho excellent translations of Turgeniev, Tolstoy, Tchekoff, and Dostoevsky, published by Mr. William Heinemann, Mr. Fisher Unwin, ■Messrs. Dent (in their "Everyman's" Library),. Messrs. Duckworth, and other 'Engjisli publishers. In music, too, Russia is by lio means despisable, as witness Glinka, whoso opera, "Life for tho Tsar," is at once a tuneful, melodious, and intensely patriotic work, selections from which might well, by tho ■way, be produced for some of our New Zealand orchestras at tho present time. sßubinsiein, too, and Tchaikowsky must Hot be forgotten. In art Russia, lias recently made great strides. Professor •Maokail also reminds us of latter-Russian.-triumphs in the world of

science, recalling tho names of Mendelcr, Metchinov, and Pavlov, and of Koralevsky, who may fairly rank with Francis Balfour ; and many others. He also pays a high compliment to the fine historical work done by Professor Vinagradoff. Tho pamphlet makes most interesting reading and is worthy of permanent preservation as a well-merit-ed tribute to Russian genius as exemplified in art, science, literature, and music.