BOOKS REVIEWED

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 20, 14 April 1927, Page 12

BOOKS REVIEWED

FROM A NEW ANGLE MURDER was a fine art in the Solomon Islands not .so many years ago. Many of the inhabitants of these beautiful islands were head-hunters; practically all were cannibals. Some, who gravely asserted that they never had tasted human flesh, had a re-markably-developed commercial instinct, for they turned their slayings in war or in peace, to profit by selling to other tribes joints of their slaughtered enemies, with as little fuss as an Auckland butcher selling a quarter of mutton. In the swiftest and most graceful war-canoes ever made by any coloured race, head-hunters and slaveraiders of the Solomons ranged over hundreds of miles of ocean. But those days have passed; murder and cannibalism are only sporadic now. Life in the Solomons is adventurous still, but it is not the perilous existence that it was before British officials made some progress in consolidating the position won, at the cost of many a life, by missionary and trader. The change which has been wrought, in a brief span of years is indicated by the title of the latest book about life in these lovely but little-known islands, in which, to-day, there are only about 500 white men to about nine and a-half millions of acres. The titles of earlier writings' about the Solomons generally featured the adventurous. Mr. Clifford W. Collinson, F.R.G.S., calls his recently-issued book "Life and Laughter ’Midst the Cannibals.” Yet it is not to be imagined that Mr. Collinson had an easy-chair existence in the Solomons. He had strenuous times and perilous moments, and he came across many grim reminders of days when a white man who wished to commit suicide had only to land on the shores of any island in the group. But he also found plenty of hard work that had no more danger in it than one would find in Auckland, and, having that useful preservative of health dnd life in many situations, a sense of humour, he found much to laugh at. A sense of humour is useful when one finds that a native cook-boy who has been carefully instructed just how long he is to boil an egg is found to have put both egg and his master’s watch into the saucepan and to have boiled them for over 10 minutes. Again, when Mr. Collinson, entertaining two friends at dinner, told a boy to put the precious tomato soup into a ‘ big fella dish,” and the boy brought in the biggest “dish” he could find, carrying it carefully by the handle, it was just as well that the host as well as the guests could appreciate the joke! But what gives the book permanent value is the quality that distinguishes it from almost all other books about the isles of the Pacific. Broadly speaking, books about the South Sea Islands may be divided into three classes, apart from missionary literature. The largest class is of the “globe-trotter” type. Another consists of reminiscences and stories written by men who voyaged among the islands in their wilder days. The third class is ethnological. There has been very, very little to give us an accurate description of the daily life of a trader and planter who was continually dealing with ex-cannibals and with the sons and daughters of cannibals. Mr. Collinson does give us a very full and informative picture of a life of which he had many years of experience, and so his book is of value to everybody interested in the South Seas. Those rather overworked adjectives, “readable” and “inter€!Sting,” are exactly fitted to it. It has, too, many good illustrations. ‘Life and Laughter ’Midst the Cannibals.” Hurst and Blackett, London. Our copy comes from Angus and Robertson, Ltd., Sydney. Love In The Manse June Boland's “Kirsty” at The Manse,” is a well-told story. Kirsty, the charmer, comes from a Canadian logging camp into the quiet of a Scotch village as ward of the minister. She storms the laird’s heart by smacking his face, and woos the parson from the rigours of his creed. Two men in friendly rivalry are a poser for Kirsty, and the solution of

her difficulties falls to the share of a faithful Canadian retainer who comes half across the world to help her decide. The author has carried her idea out very successfully. “Kirsty at the Manse.” June Boland. The Cornstalk Publishing Co., Sydney. Our copy comes from Angus and Robertson, Ltd., Sydney.

The Tourist’s New Zealand. Of recent years we have had several New Zealand histories written by New Zealanders; and between them the Tourist Department and the Publicity Office have been keeping the travelling world pretty well supplied with sectional guide-books. But between sketchy tourist folders and the heavier histories Mr. James Cowan has found an ample field for his “Travel in New Zealand,” both volumes of which (North and South Islands) are now on sale. These are books to read before one’s annual holiday, or to send overseas to those contemplating a travel visit to the Dominion. Few men know the background of New Zealand’s story more intimately than does Mr. Cowan, and. to judge from his complete and exact accounts of the South Island’s beauties and wonders, few can have a wider knowledge of where to go and how to go, in order that one may see the Dominion as it really is, and understand it. From the Marlborough Sounds to Stewart Island the reader may travel with the author through volume two, traversing the length of both coasts and turning aside whenever there is anything worth seeing. Nor will his observation be restricted to “sights” in the tourist’s common

conception of the term, for Mr. Cowan sees the beauty of a smiling pasture or a waving field of golden gr ain equally with that of cloud-piercing peaks and thundering cataracts. A book to be read by all who travel in this Island; and to be owned by all who, living in it, love it. •Travel in New Zealand.” Volume 11. South Island. James Cowan. The Parson on the Trail Most people who know a good thing from a bad one know that Canon Hannay ( George Birmingham) and Canon Whitechurch are genuine humorists, while many with a ncisier reputation are not half so funny. But Canon Whitechurch has broken out in a fresh place. His latest book is a detective story, and a good one. It is a good one because there really is sound detection in it. Several recent detective stories have solved mysteries by processes more mysterious than the mysteries themselves. But nobody can deny that the country vicar, who is Canon Whitechurch’s hero, is a brisk, shrewd, likeable fellow, one of the most likeable amateurs who have of late stumbled into the puzzle of a crime and ended by solving it. He does it all so cleverly yet modestly and pleasantly that even his tepid and successful little romance is pardonable. “The Crime at Diana’s Pool.” Victor L. Whitechurch. Fisher Unwin.