“HARD COUNTRY.”

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 310, 16 December 1936, Page 2

“HARD COUNTRY.”

LL'aT CF T!!E NOFtTtl. STORY LY CLEM YORE

A virile story of the struggles, \ardh.ps and unscrupulous striving found ■J the Alaskan goldfields, "Hal’d ounny,” oy Ciem Yore, abounds in xcitmg adventure and thrilling action corn suirt to finish. The story rentes tne determined eliorts of Jim J Neill, a mining engineer in Mexico, o discover a rich gold strike made y his father in Alaska. Jim is summoned to the deathbed if his father in Seattle and arrives in line to'learn from him that he had ound the rich strike many years beore in Alaska. He would not tell Jim, xowever, where the gold was and caried the secret to the grave. The /oung man sets out to discover the pot of which his father had raved ii his dying hours and meets his father’s old partner of the prospecting days. Jim’s romance with the daughter of this friend of his father becomes no less absorbing than his search for the hidden fortune.

An interesting aspect of the story is its modern atmosphere. In relating the adventures of the Alaskan goldfields in 1936 a writer has to develop a new technique. He is no longer able to derive dramatic effect from a thrilling race against time with a dog team over a long journey. Radio and the aeroplane have changed all that. Mr Yore has given an interesting account of the functions of the Department of Health in the North where they have established stations from which anti-epidemic serum may be taken to stricken parts of the north in a short time by ’plane. The avarice of the real “bad men jf the north,” the fortitude and constant courageous effort of the hardy settlers who have a real love foi Alaska and the heroic endeavours of the Episcopalian Missionary Bishop aver the vast territory are all portrayed by the writer in a style which makes most interesting reading.—W.J, “Hard Country,” by Clem Yore (William Collins and Sons, London),