REVIEW.

Temuka Leader, Issue 609, 22 November 1881, Page 3

REVIEW.

The New Zealand Annual, 1881

We have received from Mr Fisher, bookseller and stationer, of this town, the second number of the above annual. edited and published by Mr Mosley, of Christchurch. The contents are ten in number (seven of which are prose), by seven concontribntors. Mr Richmond Thatcher contributes two stories, good ones, viz, ‘Uncle John’s Commission.’ and ‘ M'Garvie’s Fool.’ The former abounds in fun, and concludes in the happiness of all concerned ; while the latter, a short one by the-way, ends rather the reverse, and contains some deep pathos. ‘ Mother and Daughter,’ by Alice, relates the temptations, and ultimate triumph over them, of two peisu"s, of both sex-s, in not very happy circumstances. Perhaps in this Story, the coincidences are too flagrant, •Winning and Losing,’ by Hermit, is a tale written iu quite a different style from any other in the annual. The style at first appears strained and pedantic, but as the history progresses it becomes e.isier, anyone commencing to ent u r into the gains and losses of the hero, Captain Mayne, are not like’y to pot the book down until they have read the whole. In this tale a sketch of a model Isew Zealand squatter, .after the author’s own design, is introduced. The story by Mrs C. L. Innes, ‘Dawn Cometh,’ resembles in some respects tlie dissertation by Alice. heroine of the piece is a noble chaiacter, well pourtvayed, This affords one instance of patience, which we are taught is a virtue, obtaining its reward. ‘ Cold People,’ by Marsden Mott, could, whithmit loss, have been omitted from the number. The egotism and incongruities displayed therein would scarcely be excosable in the veriest tyro. ‘Cold people/ according to it, are not only cold, but utterly without principle, selfish, dishonorable, and in short, anything hut virtuous ‘The Skeleton Hand,’ a contribution by the editor, seems to have been written witli the view of proving the certain punishment of vice if persisted in, and is rich in the supernatural. In it will be found a short, hut colored, description of what the editor terms * that disgrace to Dunedin, 1 The Devil’s Half-acre.’ The poetry emanates from Mrs C. L. Innes and Alice, the piece by the former, ‘ The Pity of it,’ an episode of colonial life being the gem. and, we think, the best piece in the book. The illustrations are by T. S. Cousins, and lithographed at the Lyttelton Times office. They are good, but there are not many of them. The letterpress is clear and distinct, albeit not perfectly tree from misprints. Taken on the whole, the public have at their command some very pleasant reading, priceone shilling—and the work deserves

large sale. It is essentially a colonial production, and every ‘ colonial ’ should support it.