BOOK REVIEWS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 14, Issue 342, 11 January 1946, Page 11

BOOK REVIEWS

— -_-- DF cee ARTS OF THE YEAR ARTS YEAR-BOOK: 1945. First Annual Review of Painting, Print-making, Drama, and Other Arts in New Zealand. Edited by Howard Wadman. Printed and published by H. H. Tombs, Ltd., Wellington. T is not easy to review this book but very easy to praise it. Why we have never had such a thing before we begin to ask now that it is here, but no one was bold enough to attempt it until Harry Tombs, who has taken so many risks for art, took one more. It is pleasant to know that this time his risk was underwritten by eager subscribers before the volume appeared and that already it is difficult to buy a copy. But the book raises other questions. Why is the necessarily limited selection of pictures more interesting, so much fresher and more alive, than any public exhibition has been during the year? Why is it more encouraging than most of the art shows? A good deal of material has been included that no one would call firstclass: as a Year Book it has had to be representative rather than selective, as the societies have had to be in their ex-’ hibitions. But while they have had the advantage of colour this is nearly all black and white and yet makes a better impression. The reason is obvious, and it is to be hoped that the societies will give it some thought. Meanwhile the important thing would seem to be that satisfied subscribers to the first issue should repeat their subscriptions for the second, and so make it possible for the publishers to plan a year in advance. The selection of work for this issue seems ‘to have been made largely by artists themselves, and there is something to be said for that method; but it is doubtful if it is a good permanent method. On the other hand if the selec. tion is to be made by the editor, it is desirable that he should know months ahead how far he may safely go, both in numbers of exhibits and in the method of reproduction. All that has been established so far is that he may safely be bold-bold and simple. The rather preteritious introduction by Ngaio Marsh and Allen Curnow, for example, would not have helped much if the editor's notes had been in the same strain. Each could have written more interestingly alone, and next time will perhaps be encouraged to do so.

A LOST POET STATION BALLADS AND OTHER VERSES. By David McKee Wright. Selected and arranged by Robert Solway. Published by John A. Lee, Auckland. EW ZEALAND lost David McKee Wright when he was about 40 years old-and just beginning, as a poet, to be grown up. In Sydney he became something entirely different from the man who wrote ballads about rabbiters and swaggers and Central Otago shearingsheds, but that later phase has nothing to do with this book. Here we have the verses, some of them merely jingles and some authentic poetry, that he wrote about his experiences as a station hand in the nineties, and those whose associations go as far back as that will be grateful to Robert Solway for selecting and editing them, to John A.: Lee for publishing them, and to Sydney Spencer, farmer and one-time shearer, who made publication possible. There could be no better tribute to the poet himself than the fact that one of his station contemporaries, all these years afterwards, was proud to deposit enough money to guarantee his resurrection. WORLD COOKS RECIPES FROM MANY RACES. Published by A. H. and A. W. Reed, Wellington, for the World Fellowship Committee of the Y.W.C.A. HESE recipes have been assembled with a view to "increasing the use, interest, and knowledge among housewives of popular dishes served in other countries." Whether the idea is to add interest to our meals or to breed tolerance for other dishes and other manners than our own, it is a very practical way of promoting international fellowship. As the index has well over 200 entries, she is a greedy housewife who asks for more. A HAPPY HISTORIAN THE STORY OF NEW ZEALAND. By A. H. Reed. Printed by Hutcheson, Bowman and Stewart Ltd. for A. H. and A. W. Reed, Wellington. E all know about the man who went into Church to scoff and remained to pray. It happens oftener than most people imagine, but never so often as with reviewers of books. Anyhow it has happened this time. A history of New Zealand with crossword puzzles to each chapter could not be much more than a literary joke (it seemed). It was carrying the joke further to get three Dunedin Masters of Arts to commend. the effort on the dust cover -. to let one praise its "entrancingly simple and dynamic style" and the other offer the gratitude of all teachers and young students. But the author can take those jokes and a few more. He says some extraordinary things-for example, that it was Seddon’s desire to see New Zealand the home of "God-fearing people"; but Seddon himself often said extraordinary things too. So did Massey-the ¢able sent to King George on the fall of Jerusalem, for example-and it is setting the standard too high to deny the artist’some of the eccentricities of the subject. The extraordinary thing is that an author with such a simple faith should range through our whole history and say so few. things with which any reasonable reader will quarrel. If it is not the story of New Zealand he has put into these 500 pages ityis a major part of the story, and it will be read and remembered by thousands whom academic historians do not reach at all. His endpapers alone, if they are not exactly models of map-making and lettering, ‘will carry beginners further than ‘some degree courses, But he is his own best

reviewer and apologist. "A desire to! avoid dullness,’ he says in his Foreword, "led me into happy adventures omewhat reminiscent of Tom Sawyer, who faced with the task of whitewashing a vast expanse of board fence .. . hit upon the notion of selling his mates the idea that it was not a task but a pastime." He has put some odd marks on his vast expanse of fence, but not many for which he has no authority.