THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILEY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. TUESDAY, JULY 22, 1879.

Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3302, 22 July 1879, Page 2

THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILEY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. TUESDAY, JULY 22, 1879.

What is the reason we have no colonial literature? By oolonial literature we mean that department of letters which 'distinctively deals with colonial subjects, 'even as our distinctively English liters* ture deals with subjects purely English. 'We 'have lapsed into a state wherein we 'depend solely upon Home matter for in* tellectual pabulum, and this, too, when 'there ii no lack of intrinsic colonial 'ability.' This is proved by the scant support given.in the shape of contributions or subscriptions to any literary venture such as a colonial Magazine or Review. Many have been the attempts, and these by men of ao mean ability, to float .periodicals which «hall represent the intellectual life of the Colonies, but with few exceptions': ill have died a'■ natural death from jjiire inanition; The one exception to this invariable rule is in the "Melbourne Be view," which still main-

itains its circulation and literary excellence. How far, ahead of us are our Canadian cousins, or the Yankee element of push? Manx periodicals, and those of high tone, are. to be fqund both in Canada and the States, and the chief feature is that they do not rely upon their light literature to create a sensation, and so palliate the heavy matter which the minds of greater compass demand, but it is in general the other way. The amount of literature, distinctively.'.light—novels, sketches, tales ' —being proportionately small to the ; immense pile of really valuable scientific, philosophical, and literary matter risible in such periodicals as Scribner's, The Atlantic Monthly, or Harper's. Moreover, they hare no. magazines,. devoted u'toielftb the ciuse of fiction—and that, alas, none of 'the purest—as are ' many of those serials which find their way from English presses to our . colony. Across the Pacific they seem to | prefer the exercise of the,brain to effeminate pandering to it, which can only end 1 in intellectual tuin. It is not from want i of literary talent that Kew Zealand has I as jot produced no;, magazine that can rank eren fifth rate with the BlaC^woods, CorohiU, Maomiilan'i, of the Home couV

try. There are many men not engaged in either press or Parliamentary work eminently fitted to assume charge of such a literary venture, and, furthermore, there are many men of scholastic and academic standing who would take an iuterest in such a production were it started. It would only need the active co-operation of the people atlarge to fairly float a magazine representative of colonial thought and life. Further, it is not as if Now Zealand were a country destitute of any material for literary themes. Politically, ihe is rapidly rising into contemporary notice; her Parliaments are really representive assemblies of the thought of the inhabitants ; her statesmen are men of ability and tact; Physically, she is yet to be the Great Britain of the Pacific. Her minerals, metals, and internal resources are unexhaustible; her soil upon the average is eminently adapted for agriculture and pasture; her manufactures, even now, are recognised at home as worthy of being nursed. Is it not, then, a singular fact that a country before which lies so brilliant a future should be destitute of a representative organ which without taking any political -side, any theological" plat-' form, any scientific department in particular should yet chronicle progress in! these three lines of thought in which every man with the least pretensions to intellectual culture takes an interest ? We hope before long the mart will be supplied by a coalition among the literary men of New Zealand—a coalition which will' be productive of good hot only themselves, but to the colony at large.