BOOKS AND AUTHOR'S.

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 149, 19 March 1921, Page 11

BOOKS AND AUTHOR'S.

(By

Liber.)

Ghe * ffiAn 'd> pipe he can smoke, (?ive a man a book he can read; 'And his home is bright with a calm delight Though the room be poor indeed.

—James Thomson.

BOOKS OF THE DAY

*Tha British Commonwealth of Nations.” In "The British Commonwealth of Nations” (Methuen and Co.), Mr. 11. Dundan Hall, M.A., of the University of Sydney and Bolliol College, Oxford, provides a most interesting' and valuable study of the past and future political development of the Empire. The book deals with the three outstanding problems—the question of Dominion status, the machinery of co-operation between the various . self-governing States and the Imperial Government, and the relatione between the British group and tho league of Nations. Mr. Hall first ,doscribes the old colonial system and the coming of responsible government, passing on to examine the nature of the colonial relationship ns it existed in the halfcentury between 1810 and 1890. He next sdiscusses the rise of colonial nationalism and the colonial idea of alliances, and then proceeds to analyse the effects of the Imperial Conferences between 18871011 upon tho development of Dominion nationhood. The author describes the working of the British group of nations before the war, traces the development of Imperial co-operation during the great •truggle of 1914-1918. and after claiming that the Imperial federation idea is "rejected by tho forces of Nationalism and Labour," proceeds to review the present situation, contending that there has come about "a reconciliation of tho absolute equality of nationhood with the formal unity of tho Empire.” Ho explains in detail the machinery of co-operation, the methods, meaning, and value of the Imperial Conferences, and puts forward several interesting suggestions for a greater solidity and practical value in the co-operation between the various States and the Mother Country. In the final chapter are set forth and examined several important questions arising out of the partnership of tho British Commonwealth in the League of Nations, tfiL author emphasising the necessity for the reconciliation of equal status and group unity, and dealing also with the American reservations. Mr. Hall, as will be seen by the foregoing rough precis, has covered a wide subject field, but each successive section is characterised by a wealth of well arranged, detailed information, which students of the relationship between the self-governing Dominions and the Imperial Government will find extremely useful. As it stands, Mr. Hall s book is by far the most practically useful book on the subject that we have had since Mr. Keith's once much-dis-cussed works, "Responsible Government in tho Dominions" and "Imperial Unity and the Dominions," the value of both which works is cordially testified to by Mr. Hall. Mr. Hall's book is an exceptionally useful and valuable work of reference, and well deserves the attention of all who are interested in the problems of Imperial, political, and economic partnership. Tho appendices include a useful bibliography, and all who have to use the book as a reference work will be properly thankful for the excellent index provided. A Copy- of Mr. Halls book should be found on the shelves of every member of Parliament, and I also warmly commend the work to university students who are taking an historical course, and to tho members of the Workers’ Educational Association. (Price 135.). ,1-h • - “Birds of Our Bush.”

“Birds of Our Bush, or Photography for Nature-lovers,” by B. T, Littlejohns and S. A. Lawrence (Melbourne, W hit-, combe and Tombs), is a book which must make strong appeal alike to students of ornithology and to amateur photograp - ers. The authors, who are members of the Boyal Australasian Ornithologists, Union and of the Nature Photographers Club of Australia, have made a, special study of bird photography, and have evidently gone to a vast amount of trouble to secure pictures of all the leading varieties of Australian birds as they ? appear in their natural surroundings. What Mr. Guthrie Smith, of Hawkes Bay, has done for certain New Zealand birds, Messrs. Littlejohns and Lawrence have done for the many curious and beautiful birds of the Australian 'bush. Naturally, in a book such as this, the illustrations constitute the leading and most attractive feature. Many of these illustrations are of great beauty, all are admirably reproduced from actual photographs, and possess, therefore, as n pictorial guide .to Australian bird life, a much greater value than do the pictures of museum specimens so commonly v.tuised for the illustration of ornithological works. While not posing as scientific ornithologists, the authors give, a vast amount of curious and valuable information as to Australian bud .life, deahng m separate chapters with suburban buds, the birds of the gum-tree and the plain, the birds of the stream-side and tea-tree scrubs, and concluding with a study oi the birds of the mountain gullies. . A special chapter is devoted to a discussion of the difficulties of bird photography, and how best to surmount them. The practical character pfthe advice given should be of no small interest and value to bird photographers in this country. An interesting Introduction is contributed by Mr. J.-A. Leach, P.Sc., vice-president of the Boyal Australasian Ornithologists Union, and the book is provided with an excellent index. Both in its fine, clear typography and the excellence of its Illustrations this latest Australian naturebook reflects high credit upon the publishers.

Religious Works. It is now nearly thirteen years ago, to be exact on June 24, 1908, that at a service held, at St. Paul’s Cathedral, in connection with the Pan-Anglican Congress then being held in London, a sum of .£.352,000 was subscribed as a thankoffering. There now comes, in a wellprinted, liberally illustrated volume, “The Spending of a Thank-offering” (S.P.C.K., per Bible and Tract Depot, Wellington), a detailed and very interesting account of . how the money then raised has been expended. The issue of the.report was delayed by the desife of the editors to give full details of the disposition of the grants, and was further ictnrded by the Great War. The money was allocated to various institutions and movements and activities in connection with Churches in Asia, Africa America (excluding the United States) Australasia, and what are called the Wand Dioceses (including Melanesia and Polynesia), and the editors claim that u notable stimulus to Christian work generally has been the outcome of the grants. To the province of New Zealand was allocated. being divided equally between Auckland. Wellington,'and Dunedin. The Wellington grant has been devoted to assisting in the establishment of a diocesan school for girls. The illustrations, of which there are a large number, represent mission and other church buildings, groups of native converts, etc., in .various parts of the world, etc. (N.zi. price. ss. (id.) Under the title "A Nation s Hero (S P C.K., per N.Z. Bible and Tract Society). Mr. ,S. 11. Macy traces th© story of Israel’s exile and return, ih« life and predictions of the prophet .teremiali be-, ing set forth in a simply-worded narrative based upon the Scriptural story and the work of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Malachi being also described and explained. A number of excellent illustrations, in col-

our and in black and white, further increase the interest of the text. “My Pathway to Christ: A Confession of Faith" (N.Z. Bible and Tract Society), is the title of a little booklet the substance of which was first delivered as a sermon by the Rev. Rutherford Waddell on the thirty-seventh anniversary of his ministry in St. Andrew’s Church. Dunedin.

Infant Hygians. "Lectures on the Management of Infante in Health and Sickness" is the title of a booklet by Dr. G. Bruton Sweet, honorary physician to St. Mary’s Home for Infants (Auckland), and formerly a member of the medical staff of the famous Children’s Hospital in Great Ormond Street, London. Dr. Sweet's volume, the contents of which are based upon a series of lectures delivered by the author to the nurses of St. Mary's Home, is specially intended for both maternity and ordinary medical nurses, and for tho members of infant welfare associations and kindred philanthropic societies. In the chapter devoted to infant feeding, the author says he has "deemed it necessary to criticise tho teaching of Dr. Truby King on tho subject.” Ho says:

The elaborate methods necessary for the preparation of humanised milk and the cost of its production prohibit its use by the poor, and it is the infants of thia class that we should try to • save. Children of tho well-to-do always have a good chance of surviving, owing to their better conditions of hygiene and environment. . . • We must devote our attention to saving the babies of the.poor and thriftless as well as the more-favoured classes of the community. The book is divided into two parte, tho first section dealing with the management of children during health, tho second with-’ the diseases of infancy. The book is published by Messrs. IVhitcombe and Tombs.

LIBER’S NOTE BOOK

The “Blue Coats” and Their Books There has been some fuss in bibliophile circles at Home over the sale at Sotheby’s of certain rare volumes belonging to Christ’s Hospital, better known as tho Blue Coat School, which has numbered amongst ite famous scholars Lamb and Coleridge- The governors of the school suffer from the prevailing malady of shortness of fundls, and held that the school library, being poorly supplied with modern literature, it was better to sell off some of the ponderous folios such aa Elliott’s Indian Bible (IGGJ), which were newer even looked at. and give the boys complete sets of Thackeray, Dickens, and Hardy. It is good to know that none of the "association books” of the school have been sold. Of such is an ancient cony-book, with the earliest known verses of Lamb and his friend Coleridge. What would! not some ot the millionaire Yankee collectors have given for the tattered treasure? I can quite understand the works of Mrs. Aphra Behn being cleared out of a school library, but it seems a pity that no wealthy "Old Bluecoat" did not step in and arrange for the retention of the first editions of Shelton’s "Don Quixote, Donne, Chapman, Lovelace's "Lucasta,” Sterife’s "Tristram Shandy, and other of the treasures Which have been sent to the auction room. As a Wellingtonian I justifiably rejoice over the fact that many similar treasures find a place on the shelves of that splendid collection, the: Turnbull Library. There is a fine provision in Mr. Turnbull’s deed of gift that no volumes (even duplicates) in the collection -are ever to be sold.

The Book Crop of 1920. No fewer than 11,004 books weret published in. Great Britain, last year, an increase of 2382 over the total for 1919. Whilst fiction is responsible for a big proportion of the increase (887), religion has, says the “Publishers’ Circular,„ “suffered an unaccountable relapse’’ ( — 87). Sociology now comes next to fiction. All I can say is that I devoutly wish British fiction would increase in quality rather than quantity. A vast amount of quite negligible fiction is published nowadays. As for the innumerable new books on political economy (so-called), and sociology generally now being published l far too many are mere pastiches hastily hashed up for popular consumption. Works of real value in post-war economics are few and far between. At least such is "Liber’s” experience. Stray Leaves.

Mr. E. V. Lucas is shortly to give us a volume of travel sketches, “Six Months’ Ixiave.” in which he will set forth his impressions of India, Japan, and the United States.

During Mr. Woodrow Wilson’s long illness his doctors tabooed any heavy reading. So the books of political science, the sober tomes of history, m whiclh the now ex-President formerly took delight, wero set aside in favour of—Stanley Whyman. Mr. Wilson might have chosen worse. "A Gentleman of France” and "Under the Bed Bobo” may be, as I well remember the “Saturday Iteview” styling them when they first appeared, "second-rate Dumas,” but they make mightily pleasant reading. But what have the American "best sellers” to say of Mr. Wilson’s preference for English fiction over the domestic article? The Ahglophobe Hearst journals will no doubt see in Mr. Wilson’s choice another proof of that Anglophilism with which they have so absurdly charged him. Here is a sarcastic fling at the wicked army of book-borrowers and bookpurloinors (from Bichard King’s pleasant volume of essays, "Over the Fireside with Silent Friends,” reviewed in these columns a week or two ago):—“I have come to the conclusion that, the only books which people are really fond of are those which rightly belong to other people. To them they are always faithful.” SOME RECENT FICTION “Caliban.” " Mr. W. L. Georgo gives us, in his latest novel "Caliban” (Methuen' and Co.), a striking, if not entirely convincing, portrait of a young Londoner who, with no special educational advantages, rises to Jhe position of a millionaire newspaper proprietor. Mr. George introduces both Lord Northcliffe and the Harmsworths as business rivals of his pushful arriviste of Fleet Street, Richard Bulmer, but the latter’s newspaper methods are largely those of the kind attributed to Lord Northcliffe, and it is impossible Jo rid oneself of the notion thnt had tho Northcliffe papers not been run on tho lines currently associated with those publications, "Caliban” would never have been written. As it is, Mr. George’s novel constitutes at once a merciless exposure and severe castigation of the methods of a certain type of latter-day English journalism. Dick Bulmer is out to succeed, at any cost, and succeed he doos. He makes his first hit with a weekly snippet journal of the "Tit. BiS" and "Answers” class, plus a dnSh of "Modern Society,” and eventually founds a new morning daily. The "Daily Gazette,” the description of which and its policy—or what passes for such—and the methods by which it achieves a huge circulation, is clearly baaed upon a close study of the history of the "Daily Mail,” and the Harms-

worth dailies. Bulmer lives for his papers, he displays a quite uncanny knack of knowing "what tho public wants" and eometlhing very near genius in not only supplying what is wanted, but in actually educating the public into an appreciation of every new trick of the trade which he may choose to in troduce. Moro than one woman conies into his life, but; he never allows any feminine interference with his business plans and procedure, and save in one instance, Mr. George spares us any such offences' against good taste as defaced his last 1 year’s story "Blind Alley." "Caliban'" is not only a well written and most interesting story, but it throws many cuitious sidelights upon the prewar—and, in a minor degree—wartime methods aitd tricks of a certain class of English journals. "The Elephant God.” Major D'prmot, the hero of Gordon Casserly’s dtory of modern Indian life, "The Elephant God” (Philip Allan and Co., per Wjhitcombe and Tombs), is an English officer in charge cf a fort on the Bhutan; frontier. lie saves an elephant from, the brutality of the animal’s mahout, and thereupon is initiated a strange friendship betwen the grateful elephant, Badshah by name, and the English sefidier, a friendship which has a very curious and important sequel. For the author depicts Badshah as being the acknowledged head and leader of a large body elephants, which, under his guidance, come to the rescue of Dermot and Jiis friends whenever these latter ore in a tight corner, as, through the machinations of a rascally Bengali clerk and his patron "and co-plotter against the British raj, a native rajah, they are fated to find themselves. There is an incidental love-story, but the main interest of the novel lies in its realistic pictures of Anglo-Indian and native life, and its description of the difficulties which assail .British officialdom when dealing with Indian sedition. The local colour of the story, certain scenes in which are Ipid in the great jungle district of the 'Terai. is vividly picturesque. Mr. Cas-sorly, however, perilously approaches CEtiiouture when he describes a travelling Scottish Socialist member of tho Hpuse of Commons, wM; is named Mr. Donald Macgregor, but "whose appearance suggested n. Hebrew patronymic," being, in fact, "a foreign .Tew turned Scotsman” —plotting against British rule, and saying: The General ffilectiou comes off in a few months, and otir party la sure of victory. I am authorised to assure you that our first act will bo to give India absolute independence. So do what, you like. But don’t kill tho white women and children—at least, not opdnly. They might not like it in England, though, personally, I don't care if you massacre every damned Britisher in the country. Neither a Scotsman nor a Jew, still less a combination of both, would, however secretly disloyal he might bo to Britain, he such an arrant fool as to babble out such a brutality as the above even to a drunken Indian rajah. Apart from this grotesque caricature, Mr. Casserly’s characters are well drawn and sufficiently convincing.

“Lady Fingers.” Bobby Ashe, the hero of Jackson Gregory’s story, "Lady Fingers" (C. Scribner’s Sons; per Whitcombe and Tombs), reminds me a little of the loading figure in that popular American novel, "Tho Butterfly Man.” There is, however, no lack of originality in Mr. Gregory's novel, the scene of which is laid first in the underworld of ISan Francisco, and later in the sunny Californian runche country. The hero, young Bobby Ashe, is a skilled and successful thief, the curious slenderness and grace of 'his fingers accounting for his professional -nickname of "Lady Fingers." Finding the air of San Francisco temporarily but decidedly unwholesome, owing to a vendetta sworn against him by a rascally "fence” and an equally rascally high police official, who is secretly in league with certain of Bobby's rivals in tho art of cracksmanship/the hero takes to rustic life, becomes secretary to an immensely rich but very eccentric old lady, and falls in love with a beautiful and well-educated maiden. Tracked down 'by his enemies from the city, he is saved by the "fence’s” daughter, who is passionately in love with him, and is eventually discovered by tho eccentric lady millionaire to be her long lost great-grandson and heir presumptive to her colossal fortune. 1 refrain from disclosing the denouement of a well-written, and, in ite own class, excellent story.