LITERARY NEWS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 75, 18 August 1914, Page 6

LITERARY NEWS.

"THE TALES OF TIMBER TOWN." (By A: A. Grace, author of "Tales of a Dying Race," ''Hone Tiki Dialogues," etc.) This is a story of the old gold-digging days. It opens at a time when Timber Town, a typical New Zealand mining town of the 'sixties, is on the verge of a gold-mining boom, and forthwith the reader is plunged into a scnsatioiiaj drama in which garish scene succeeds garish scene, tragedy succeeds comedy, and laughter succeeds tears. , It is also the story of what was perhaps the greatest crime ever committed in New Zealand, hut the narrative of that crime is subordinated to the main | feature of the tale, .which is connected with the fortunes of the chief character, [.Benjamin Tresco, goldsmith and goldbuyer, who, complex in nature, .fallible but lovable, brings himself within the cultches of the law, and yet redeems himself 'by an act of such self-sacrifice as earns the forgiveness of tile rough, but generous, community of Timber Town. But the tale does not depend for its .interest merely on the tragical side ot life. There is comedy in almost every chapter, in tho doings and sayings of the purse-proud old identity, Mr. Crewe, [Timber Town's millionaire; of the gold- : smith's comical apprentice; of the gruff, ; kindly pilot of Timber Town, Captain Summerliayes; of Bill, the prospector, who brings such good fortune to the town; of all save the villains of the piece and of perhaps the tragical character of Gentle Annie: The romance of Jack .Scarlet runs through the narrative and is associated' closely with Amiria, a brave Maori girl who saves Him from the wreck of the Merry Witch .with Eachael Varnhagen, tho rich Jew's pretty daughter, and with Rose Summerliayes, the beautiful and gentle heroine of the story. The author's manner of telling his story ig chiefly by means of the dialogue of his characters. In this way tho story may be said to tell itself, anil the telling is direct, devoid of superfluous .descriptions, crisp and effective. Published by Gordon and Gotch, New Zealand, price one shilling.