LITERATURE and LIFE

Otago Witness, Issue 4029, 2 June 1931, Page 68

LITERATURE and LIFE

Whether we forget the poet completely, or use him In our advertising schemes (says an exchange), some one will always, like him in the London Spectator, arise to blazon the poet’s real worth:

not one is included which is unworthy of a place in this high company. Pathos and humour; sense and nonsense, love and hate are here, deftly portrayed by this master workman. That they will not fail to please cannot for a moment be doubted. OUR NATIVE LAND. * Such is Life ” and other New Zealand Stories. By N. E. Coad. (Cloth; 2s Cd net.) London: Arthur JI. Stockwell, Ltd. ~ Then content within us waxes, and we scorn the world's applause, ’Mid the ringing of the axes, and the droning of the saws. Miss Coad presents these nine stories to a reading public which has known her to better advantage as an author in more serious vein. They are slight in construction, some historical, some purely imaginative, one at least satirical, and all New Zealand in atmosphere. “ Such is Life ” is a talc of war—of a man torpedoed in the Mediterranean, of boats rammed by a merciless German admiral, of rescue with the loss of an arm, of a reception, some time later in the Wellington Town Hal), and of his introduction to the German admiral. “Such is Life!” Something like a Russian plot is contained in “ A Political Explosion,” while “ The Motorist and the Pedestrian ” might have happened anywhere (the scene is laid in Auckland), except that the idea of “ free motor cars for all the free and independent pedestrians of New Zealand” might have a better chance of fruition in election year than elsewhere. 11 The Worm Turns,” is a satire on our inquisitorial catechism for steamer passengers. “The Emigrant’s Dream.” introduced by the lines quoted above, is the story of a Scotchman who made good. “ The Last of the Pioneers ” is historical; likewise “The New Zealanders: A Pioneer’s Party,” in which warlike Maoris take a hand. “An Incident of the Gold Mining Days in New Zealand ” is a narrative of some business with an astute Chinaman,” and Bluff ” is a tale of failure and ultimate success.