Books Reviewed

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 773, 20 September 1929, Page 14

Books Reviewed

"ART IN MEW ZEALAND”

South Island artists contribute the major portion of the September number of “Art In New Zealand,” which is an interesting addition to the excellent numbers that have preceded it. The colour plates, excellently reproduced, include “December Morn” by Evelyn Poison, a most harmonious grouping of three figures, one nude: “Franz Josef Glacier,” a typical example of the work of Miss M. O. Stoddart; and Mrs. Elizabeth Kelly’s fine portrait of Mrs. Henry Crust. Mrs. Elizabeth Wallwork, New Zealand's leading worker in the pastel medium, is represented by “The Letter.” Among the black and white reproductions are “Wistaria” by Mrs. Stephanie Vincent; “French Poplars,” an effective little impression, by Miss Margaret Anderson; “Leysin” by the much-travelled Miss Cora Wilding; “The Mountain Tarn" by Rata Lovell Smith; and “Study of a Native Tree,” by Mrs. E Rosa Sawtell. Other Christchurch artists who contribute to the number are Mrs. E. C. Crosse, Miss Olive Spencer Bower and Miss V. Macmillan Brown. “Habitation de Pecheurs." a pen-and-ink sketch by Mr. C. Spencer Penlington and an aquatint by Mr. H. H. Tombs are interesting, and an Aucklander, Jessie Edmiston, presents a study of an intelligent-looking dog. A number of exhibits from the exhibition recently held by the Auckland Society of Arts are reproduced, including Mr. Kenneth Mac Queen’s splendid watercolour “The Tractor” which, however, loses something of its quality without its rich, loamy colouring. Mr. A. J. C. Fisher, of the Elam School of Art, reviews the 1929 exhibition in Auckland, Miss Eileen Duggan contributes a poem, and the editor, Mr. C. A. Marris, is represented by a short story and poem. Mr. Roland Hipkins. A.R.C.A., writes and illustrates an article on “Block Prints.” “Art In New Zealand.” Vol. 1L No. 5. H. H. Tombs, Ltd., 22 Wingfield Street, ft ellington. Our copy from the publishers.

AMERICA AND EUROPE.

is lo end of books on I America, on Europe, on the future of civilisation. Some of them were worth writing. Lucien | Romier’s “Who Will Be Master?” j Is one of them. Romier is a Flench economist and historian who went to the United States to learn and observe, from its experiments in construction —not least in the con* j struction of a nation—for the benefit j of bis own country. What he saw : taught him three simple but deep truths. First, if society is not to sue- J cumb to diseases of it* own generat- j ing, it must guard the freedom of the ■ mind in an age of mechanisation. Second, it must defend the family, assailed j “both by Socialism and certain forms j of capitalism.” The family, like intellectual liberty, is endangered when the individual is turned into an “economic unit.” Third, humanity or humanism must be preserved against the material influences which have begun to displace others as those most effective in drawing men together. “Civilisation, as it becomes wholly utilitarian, loses ail its delights, and, consequently, its deeper utility. It becomes nothing but a police system engaged in supervising narrow’ and mundane forms of activity.” The development of the case which is here summarised is very capable and well worth following. “Who Will Be Master—Europe or America?’’ Eucien Romier. Trans, by Matthew Josephson. John Hamilton. Our copy from the cub Ushers. Knights of the Air. When some young Americans, eager ; to get into the w r ar, were transferred ; from their own air service to the Royal j Air Force, they wondered, for a while, ■ what they had struck. Before long, however, they were delighting in the new atmosphere, filled with admiration for the R.A.F. and despising their own air service. Some of them, after the war, told the world about it. “War Birds” was the greatest book written by one of them, because it was never intended to be a. book; and Mr Laurie York Erskine has written one of the best deliberate efforts. One imagines that Mr Erskine himself was one of the Americans who wore attached to the R.A.F. Certainly he knows flying, and he seems to know what one imagines, from other books, and from conversations, to have been the atmosphere of at any rate some parts of the R.A.F. “Fine Fellows” has some excellent stories of air-fighting. There are the me who wanted to win the war, and win it by themselves. There are tho great commanders, and the bad leaders who nevertheless were great fight* ers. And there are the squadrons—there must have been some such, just as there were in other branches of the service—where the gradual breaking of the nerves had left demoralisation. It is unfortunate that Mr Erskine hung his stories together by the use of a rather clumsy device; but he has written a book that is very interesting, not only because of its subject, but because characters are not only fighters. but living men. •'Fine Fellows.” Laurie York ErskJnr*. D. Appleton and Co. Our copy from the publishers. Fishermen’* Essays. For some years past Arthur Randoms has been contributing delightful angling essays to the “Manchestei Guardian.” Some 50 of these have now been brought together and issued in book form under the general title “Rod and Line”; and it is not going too far to say thau the collection 1 surpassed by no other of its type Fishing has ever been a contempiativ art and cne that invites the calm cor. pany of literature where a more ru L gressive sport enjoys the boisterov fellowship of daily journalism. M Ransome’s writings are calm, and the. have that fragrance of real literatur that one associates with so many o the special contributions to the “Mar Chester Guardian.” Merely as a co’ lection of essays on the out-of-door “Rod and Line” is worth reading an keeping to re-read; but to the fresl water fisherman, of whatever age an whatever degree of skill, it i 3 such : book as happens along only once ij many seasons. We hope Mr Ransom' will make a second collection. “Rod and Line.” Arthur Ransom e Jonathan Cape. Our copy from the publishers. Papers For Kyoto “New Zealand Affairs” is the first volume of studies of New Zealand topics published by the Dominion branch of the Institute of Pacific Relations. These, as Sir James Allen explains in a foreword, can be regarded as data papers for the forthcoming conference of the institute, to be held at Kyoto. Similar volumes are being

issued by other countries which intend to be represented at the conference. The collected papers will be read with marked interest, and not only at Kyoto, for they have been contributed. in each case, by men well qualified to sound an authoritative note. “The Geographical Environment, Population and Resources of the Dominion” is dealt with by Dr. W. N. Benson, Professor of Geology at Otago University, and Dr. Guy Seholefield, the editor, writes of “The People of New Zealand.” Contributions are made also by Dr. H. Belshaw, “Farm Production and Population”; Mr. T. D. H. Hall, “New Zealand and Asiatic Immigration”; Mr. Lloyd Ross, “The Absorption of the Immigrant”; Dr. E. P. Neale, of Auckland, “External Trade”; Professor A. H. Tocker,

“Balance of Trade and Payments”; Mr. Walter Nash, “New Zealand Labour and the Pacific”; Mr. W. H. Cocker, “The Mandate for Western Samoa”; and Mr. J. E. Strachan, “Amateur Radio.” One of the outstanding features of the volume is a stimulating paper by that cultured Maori, Sir Apirana Ngata, on “Anthropology and the Government of Native Races in the Pacific.” “New Zealand Affairs.” L. M. Isitt, Ltd., Christchurch. Our copy from the publishers. PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED "The Biography of Sir Joseph Ward,” by R. A. Loughnan. This biographv first appeared, serially. In the columns of The Sun. New Century Press, Ltd., Wellington, New Zealand. Our copy from the publishers. “The Month,” September number. Includes first instalment of Hilaire Belloc’s new series of articles “On History.” “Stead s Review,” September number. Usual wide range of topics. J. c. Squire writes on G. K. Chesterton’s verses.