The Daily News. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 11. ABOUT A BOOK.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 15, 11 October 1910, Page 4

The Daily News. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 11. ABOUT A BOOK.

Lately there has appeared an official history of the war in South Africa written by the brilliant "Linesman" (Captain Grant). Whether this fact had anything to do with the question in Parliament about tlie loiig-looked-for "History of the New Zealand Contingents" is not known, hut that is the probability. The "History of the Contingents" has been "on the books" for at least eight years. When it was mooted by the late Mr. Seddon that such a history should be 1 written, there was a rush to gather in the job. The appalling book about New Zealand written by an American commercial traveller named McMurran (who knew nothing of ihis subject), seemed to give the impression that a man with the least knowledge might get the job of writing the war-book. But apparently out of the chaos of the applicants the Government chose a newspaper man who had, we believe, some soldiering experience in the war. He set about the task of collecting information a very , hopeless one, considering that there were [ ten regiments, whose men were scattered • to the four corners of the earth. This . writer abandoned the task and the mat- ', ter rested for awhile, until Mr. F. E. '(Beamish, of the Postal Department, who had been an officer in the Sixth Regi- . ment, was given permission to carry on the work. He set about it with energy, enterprise and skill and l left no stone (unturned to obtain material for a book. It is presumed that this officer still has his uncompleted book on his hands and that, in due course, it will be published. . As far as we are aware the official his- | tory is not intended to deal in any original manner with the realities of cam- ' paigning, the Government desiring a mere ; record of the treks indulged in and the general work undertaken. We believe | the author in his anxiety to obtain the fullest information was "stuck up" by the fact that at least one contingent had no records of any kind, that no officer or man of it could give any clear outline of what had taken place, and on this account the work has been delayed. As a matter of interest so long after the war the New Zealander who did not go to South Africa does not want a careful and mathematical statement of hard facts and figures. Most of these can be obtained from the Defence Office. We are very sure that Abbott's "Tommy Cornstalk" is a much more readable book ' than Conan Doyle's history of the war, and that anybody who can construct a "Tommy Fernleaf" will have a larger reading public than he who finishes a solemn report of New Zealanders' treks and fights. The difficulty of construct- | ing an official history which the Attor-ney-General mentions is still coming out is much greater now than ever it was, and the interest in the detail of a strife in which New Zealanders took part is at a low ebb. What has happened ? Louis Botha, Oommander-in-Ohief of the Boer forces, is (Premier of South Africa, the great Christian de Wet is back behind the plough (put on his farm by the generous action of Britishers). De Villiers, who commanded a section of our enemies, has discarded his rifle and ban- ' doliers and is wearing the coronet of a British baron. De la Rey, whom New Zealanders knew as one of the bravest and most gentlemanly soldiers who ever "took scoff," is almost Anglicised, if what one reads about is true. Piet de Wet has been home to England and not long ago went to Cambridge to see the old college where he was once a gold medallist. Things have changed, and there is no real cause for hurry about this official record. The historian has long ago returned to his Department and unless the public of New Zealand is aching for the history next week, it is unlikely that he will be dragged away from his work to chase de Wet through the pages of the history.