NEW ZEALAND WRITERS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 9, Issue 226, 22 October 1943, Page 14

NEW ZEALAND WRITERS

NEW ZEALAND NEW WRITING: No. .2. Edited by Ian A. Gordon, Progressive Publishing Society, Wellington. HE excuse for this book is the demand for it. Five thousand copies of Number 1 were sold without any difficulty at all. This number is quite as good as that, and should sell as freely. And if it does, excuse is the wrong word. We shall have to say complete justification. But let no one be deceived. Most of this writing is new, but not much of it is good. The sketch by Mrs. Andrews is good-strong, searching, unusual, though the English setting seems unnecessary. David Hall and Roderick Finlayson have something to say, though strangely different ways of saying it. But have the others? It depends on the standards by which they are judged, but if these are rigorous standards, the answer must be No. They have technique-a manner: sometimes their own, sometimes acquired. One or two of them — David Ballantyne, for example-may be on the way to something. But they have certainly not arrived yet; and it is not so certain that the best method of bringing out important writers is to give. circulation to the unimportant. However it is an argument that every honest reviewer will be glad to see proved wrong. The writers we are waiting for may emerge from among these we find it difficult at present to take seriously, and if they do the Progressive Publishing Society will have an important place in the history of New Zealand culture. Meanwhile it must be praised for its initiative and energy, (But it is a pity that so

many literals have escaped notice. Mistakes there must be, but the ratio in this small volume is much too high.)