BOOKS-OLD AND NEW.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 233, 30 March 1912, Page 6

BOOKS-OLD AND NEW.

(By .ames Wortley.) AN ATTRACTIVE SCHOOL BOOK. 'The Geography of New Zealand." iiv P. Marshall, M.A., D.Sc., F.G.S., F.R.G.S., Professor of Geology, Otago University. (London and Wellington: Whitcombe and Tombs, Ltd). It hardly needs the expert knowledge of the trained educationalist to be able to pronounce the volume under notice as an admirable text book. The change that has been wrought in scholastic methods in the short space of 20 years is evidenced by two books. One is Comwell's School Geography, of 188G, which was in use in Taranaki as late as ISBB. Its very voluminous statistics may be judged by one or two it gives of New Zealand, thus: Mt. Egmont, 11,500 ft.; principal rivers, Waikato and aWihi, of Thames. Of only six towns mentioned Hokitika is given the longest notice. Two words, "Early settlement." dispose of Christchurch, while Auckland is said to be "not increasing, having barely 20,000 inhabitants. Turning to the other, with Whitcombe and Tombs' 1012 imprint, a very different state of affairs is evidenced. Here is a bright, attractive volume, well illustrated by photographs, drawings and diagrams. The various maps range from Tasman's coast line and Captain Cook's chart to elaborate relief maps. Great care has evidently been taken to ensure scrupulous accuracy, and sections of the work have been written by such local authorities as Professor Gregory and Messrs Hamilton and Hogben. The whole scope of the book is much wider than one is led to expect in a "geography." It is divided into four sections—historical, commercial, political and physical. Very readable chapters are those on education and religion, relations within the Emtaxation and the Maoris. A book that contains such comprehensive information on trade, production, population and industries, together with deductions arrived at from a scientific study of the conditions, is of great value, not only to the student, but also to the statesman and business man. Indeed, no one who would have at his fingers' ends information about his country in a concise and get-at-able form can "afford to dispense with Mr. Marshall's work. The very long section devoted to the physical aspect of the country is no less readable than its commercial and historical portion. The main idea carried away after dipping into this book is that New Zealand is a bundle of traveller's samples—"a little bit of everything." Cer tain it is that the country is interesting in its infinite variety—geographically, geologically and climatically. Nor is it the lack of a delightfully lucid and entertaining book, though it be but a school book, if we do not arrive at a thorough knowledge of it.