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Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3914, 5 February 1884, Page 2

The Government, it seems, entrusted Dr. Hector with the task of writing a'ncvf Handbook for New Zealand, and this work has lately been issued from the press. Some time back tho Timaru Herald a ■:■■ —icntcd strongly on the action of the Government in authorising the issue of a new Handbook, when the Agent-General had insisted on the necessity for.tho work being- compiled in London. To our contemporary's remarks the Government replied.through tho usual channel,'that the Timaru paper had found a mare's nest, Dr. Hectors work being merely a departmental publication, having nothing to do with the Handbook now being compiled in London. Since then the Timaru Herald has received a copy of the book, and it regrets being obliged to say that tlm statement put abroad by tho Government as to its being " simply a departmental publication " is simply an unqualified untruth. Dr.' Hector is director of the geological survey, and the business of his department is confined to geology, mineralogy, meteorology, and other scientific' subjects. His Handbook, on the contrary, is not confined, and does not pretend to bo confined, to anything of the sort, it is a most pretentious affair, for according to Dr. Hector's own account of it, given in the preface to the present edition, it aims at nothing less than supplying a compendium of all the pub-. ■dished literature bearing'on New Zealand. Far from dealing solely with matters coming within the scope of Dr. Hector's department, it professes to deal exhaustively with all matters connected with New Zealand, such "as its history, native race, government, vegetable and animal products, agriculture, pastoral pursuits and products, fisheries, geology, mining, climate, statistics, trade and industry, Crown lands, forests, mineral waters, public works and public institutions. For a "simply departmental publication," this must be admitted to be a pretty full programme, and it is hard to sec what more a "regular" Hand-book could be made to contain. It is perfectly manifest, in fact, that this was intended to take the place of the Agent-General's Hand-book, and if •it had been well done there would not havo been the smallest occasion for any other Hand-book to be published either in England or in tho colony. But, unfortunately, it, is nor, well done at all. From Dr. Hector's point of view, we dare sny, it is a highly ''satisfactory production ; but from the public point of view, or the Agent-General's point of view, —which is the same thing—it is almost entirely useless. Dr. Hector is nothing if not scientific, and throughout his Hand-book he makes it only too plain that he is quito incapable of seeing anything except through scientific spectacles. Those parts of the book which arc devoted to .scientific subjects are copious, carefully elaborated and evidently written con nmore. Those, on the other hand, where the Doctor condescends to discuss mere ordinary matters, such as government, settlement, laws, institutions, industries, and so forth, are brief, ; cursory, careless, and practically worthless. For example, while Dr. Hector finds space for forty-five pages of deeply learned discourse ou the geology of New Zealand, lie dashes off its government in a pageand a half of very inaccurate slip-slop.