“A NEW HEAVEN.”

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 1987, 7 June 1919, Page 3

“A NEW HEAVEN.”

HON. G. W. BUSSELL’S BOOK. LONDON CRITIC'S COMMENTS. London, April 1. Messrs Methuen have .just published <! A New Heaven,” I)y tho Hon. G. W. Bussell, New Zealnml’s Minister for Public Health. “One effect of (ho Great ’War,” says the Sunday Times, ‘‘has been to enable us islanders to come upon closer terms with the minds of onr brothers overseas. Al the moment, we have to thank Mi 1 George Warren Bussell for enabling' ns to understand how Heaven pictures itself to tho mind of the New Zealand Minister for Internal Affairs and Public Health. We are somewhat, tempted tax imagine that this description should really be ‘Minister of Supernal Affairs and Public Mirth’ —but Messrs Methuen could hardly be so careless in their proofreading. “Mr Russell's Heaven is so remarkably bke our,mundane civilisation that the most material-minded man could pass into it without (he slightest fear that he would be unequal to the spiritual strain of celestial life. We gather from the chapter headed, ‘I Have Some Lunch,’ that he would probably have to become a vegetarian; we hazard the guess that he would have to be content with disembodied in the place of disembotlled spirits. But otherwise he would feel wholly at: ease in Zion. He would meet Lord Kitehcner, still with the parade rasp in his voice; he would Ho able to browse in a public library (this news will make Mr Andrew Carnegie less reluctant to doff his shroud of mortal llesh); and lie will be allowed to put such piercing and intelligent questions to those who know the ropes of Paradise as ‘Do you use the Bible here?’ We hope that Mr Bussell will not bo disappointed when he comes to compare Heaven with his picture of it; and wo sincerely trust that he may not have the opportunity for many years to come. The world can spare many men far more easily Hum its humourists. Mr Hall Caine should lose no time in reading this book.”