A BREATH OF FRESH AIR FROM JIM HENDERSON

Taupo Times, Volume XIV, Issue 68, 31 August 1965, Page 3

A BREATH OF FRESH AIR FROM JIM HENDERSON

" OPEN COUNTRY," edited by Jim Henderson, comes as a breath of fresh air after tbe spate of pipn©er tales that stick pretty faithfully to the one lune. This one is a happy mixture of experiences by many different writers from practically every distriet, with a little long-bow archery here and there for leavening. Many of the characters will be remembered by those who have listened to the series when they were broadcast under the same heading. Every reader should know the locale of one action; and quite a few will be acquainted with a goodly number of others. Jim Henderson's own village of Riwaka, set, as it is, in the midst of hop fields and tobacco plantations bounding the left bank of a most delightful dry-fly stream, is one that springs instantly to mind. From this lovely valley, with its fine little pub and friendly people, it is pleasant to read ''Rats" and other stories by Archdeacon James Young, who is still fondly remembered in Raetihi as a highly skilled "fisher of trouts and men." From Taupo itself comes a good story of a teacher in the "Far North" setting out with eight young pupils to walk to Auckland, so that they could see something of the world outside of tiny Tekao; how they held concerts in each place they stayed, in order to pay their way; how when they struck Hikurangi, poverty stricken by months

of strike in the mines, they gathered the biggest bag of coins for the whole trip. This teacher, Joseph Banks, of Taupo, had the pleasure of showing the children many new phases of life in their long journey; they, on the other hand, showed their teacher how to walk. Sheep, dogs, horses, shepherds, cooks — and other bosses — rivers and mountains are the rich ingredients for this dish of the country life as the New Zealander lives and loves it. It is liberally illustrated with drawings by artists of the quality of Mclntyre, Morgan, Nevile Lodge. A first class index is supplied to indicate where the yarn was born. Maps of the North and South Islands are there inside both covers, with an arrow pointing to the spot, and, at the blunt end of the arrow, a figure of reference to the page where the yarn concerned commences. I particularly like the last chapter called "Discovery" wherein David McLeod tells of how, as a greenhorn, he rode to a remote sheep station in search of of job: "I looked round the wide horizon, a ring of massive mountains all round; Binser, Pevril, White, Pakate. Into his mind came a quotation 'The hills like giants at a hunting lay, chin upon hand to see the game at play.' "Here I was," he continues, "With a horse, Starlight, and a dog, Dark, and a job on a station of 150,000 acres of wild and mountainous country and all my future, and the high country before me." "And how was I to know then," he says, somewhere else, "That one day this would all be my own?" Good writing, one feels, with which to end up a very readable hook. "Open Country," edited by Jim Henderson and published by Reed. My copy from Vincent's Bookshop, Taupo. Price 32/6 — (G.G.K.)