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Hokitika Guardian, 25 January 1927, Page 2

In 1912 the late Sir Henry Rider Haggard completed his memoirs and deposited them under seal with bis publishers, with instructions that they were not to be opened until after his death. That occurred in 1925, and now they have been published, under the title of “The Days of My Life.’’ The desire that they should appear posthumously must have been prompted by reticence alone, for they do not contain a word that could possibly offend anyone’s susceptibilities. On the contrary, they reveal a singularly kindly and generous personality, who is always eager to think the best of human nature, and who goes out of his way to speak of his contemporaries in complimentary terms. Rider Haggard was horn in a farm house in an agricultural county, and to That circumstance he used to attribute his lifelong devotion to agriculture. As a youth, he showed little intellectual promise. He failed to pass the Army Entrance Examination, and his father declared that he was only fit to he a greengrocer. When he was 19, he was appointed to a post on the staff of the Governor of Natal, and in South Africa he did so well that at the age of 21 lie was Acting-Master of Registrar of the High Court at Pretoria. Tn South Africa, also, ho gained the knowledge of the natives, their customs, and their folk lore, which was to stand him in such good stead* later on. When he was twenty-six he returned to ‘England, was called to the Bar, and settled down to earn his living with his pen. until such time as briefs should come in. As a. matter of fact lie never had much legal work, and gave un practice before long. His first book, “Cetewayo and his White Neighbours,” was a “dud.” He had to pay £SO to have it published, and very few copies wore sold. Subsequently. however, when his reputation was established, it ran into several coitions. “Dawn.” and “The Witch’s Head” wore more successful. But he made his first real hit with “King Solomon’s Mines,” which was written in six weeks. He had great difficulty in finding a publisher for his hook, which proved a veritable gold mine, and inci-

dentally laid the foundation of a friendship between Haggard and R. L. Stevenson. Rider Haggard himself had no great opinion of his novel. Ho thought that his works on agricultural subjects were far more important and enduring, and he was indefatigable in his efforts to promote a revival of agriculture in England. In 1913 lie visited Australia ns a member of the Dominions Royal Commission, but as his memoirs were already in the safe of Longmans. Green and Co., no reference is made to this.