ORMONDE FIRE

Evening Star, Issue 22456, 29 September 1936, Page 7

ORMONDE FIRE

N.Z. NOVELIST'S ACCOUNT MR JOHN BRODIE'S RETURN [Per United Press Association.! AUCKLAND, September 28. A first hand account of the fire on the Ormonde was given by Mr John Brodie, the successful New Zealand novelist known in the literary world as John Guthrie, on the arrival of the Maunganui. Air Brodio said the situation would have been very ugly bad the fire, for instance, broken out at night when the ship was between Colombo and Fremantle in conditions at all stormy. As it was, the Ormonde was only five miles off the Australian coast, and the captain decided to put the ship into Twofold Bay instead of running for Sydney. Mr Brodie is returning to his home in New, Plymouth, and intends doing further writing. He spent eight months in London. He expressed the opinion that it was necessary for a writer to make personal contacts at Home, otherwise it was pretty hopeless working out here in New, Zealand. At the present time he did not think New Zealand had sufficient population to support a novelist entirely, and for that reason it was necessary to visit the Homeland. New Zealand, however, could do a great deal for the New Zealander in the early stages by providing the foundation for him and also giving him encouragement, both of which he had had and appreciated.