A NEW ZEALAND OBSERVER

New Zealand Listener, Volume 15, Issue 369, 19 July 1946, Page 5

A NEW ZEALAND OBSERVER

Sir,-"Encourage local industry" seems to me, subject to safeguards, to be a warrantable, even a patriotic, slogan. For many, reasons it is not generously applied to local literature. This may be why foo little notice has been taken of J. E. Strachan’s book New Zealand Observer published six years ago. To me as a teacher-reader it seems to have solid claims to the lasting esteem of fellow New Zealanders. It is rather a unique thing, a good travel book recounting with keen insight things not only seen, but thoughtfully considered. Time and again, the writer (never ostentatiously) "provides the answers." Its style is quiet, easy, and clear, but it is that of a man who feels it part of his integrity to say what he really thinks. His interest is human and it is as they react on fellow human beings that the writer evaluates American institutions with an eye which, if courteous, is also searching. . Mr. Strachan, as New Zealanders generally are beginning slowly to learn, is a very wise man. In his profession he has concerned himself with those things which help or hinder life as it must be lived. That is why his comments on varied aspects of American education are, though so unpretentiously phrased, so pregnant. Surely all these qualities of writing and of thought make his book one of enduring value. It is because I take this view that I venture, very belatedly I admit. to call attention to it.

A FELLOW

TEACHER

(Island Bay).