THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1909. NEW ZEALAND IN EVOLUTION.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9679, 31 December 1909, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1909. NEW ZEALAND IN EVOLUTION.

By the last mail from England we received from the well-known publisher, Mr T. Fisher Urwin, a copy of "New Zealand in Evolution." a work that deals with this Dominion from an industrial, economic and political point of view. The author is Mr Guy H. Scholefield, who ''s a Bowen ar d Macmillan-Brown prizeman of the University of New Zealan.i, ar.d there is an introduction by the Hon, W. Pember Reeves, Director or the London School of Economics. Mr Reeves says, inter alia, "so far t! e evolution of our trade and industry have never been adequately examin I ed, narrated in sequence, and summarised, at any rate in booic form. . . . If it be complained that the book is almost entirely concerned with pacific life and material nines, the answer is that it is entirely a story of development by peaceful labour. The story is worth telling. The author might have chesen a romantic subject. He had a right to choose one useful and informing, and, having chosen it, to stick to his last. A New Zealand journalist of excellent standing, Mr Scholefield has been well placed for many years* to enable him to study the country and its settlers." To attempt to review such a work in the limited space at our command is an impossibility, but the general impression that it creates in the mind of the reader is that it is essantially a book for New Zealanners by a New Zealander. The original settlers of this Dominion were deserving of honour, and one cannot help feeling proud that among the present generation there are men capable of performing the work that Mr Scholefield has accomplished, for It is evidence of t u e tact New Zealanders are not only a , progressive but an improving race. How great

is the change from the eariy days of this country until the present time may be comprehended by a careful perusal of its pages. Mr Scholefield is a pleasing writer, and the mass of information tirat. he has compiled into a readable form is a monument to his journalistic ability. "New Zealand in Evolution" is a book ihat every New Zealander should read, and though outsiders may not be able to understand it with the same clearness as a resident ef this country can, yet we know of no better work that could be recommended to anyone who takes ary i: terest in the "Fritain of the South "