"NICE OF YOU, BUT..."

New Zealand Listener, Volume 16, Issue 391, 20 December 1946, Page 5

"NICE OF YOU, BUT..."

Sir,-The brief review of my book If You’d Care to Know, which appeared in your issue of November 29 over the name of David Hall, can hardly be regarded as a fair summing-up of my work. Of this book about New Zealand Mr. Hall makes the sweeping statement that it is not enlightening, or as he has expressed it, "Enlightening it is not." It is surprising to learn that in the 169 pages of my writing Mr. Hall has found no fact concerning our Dominion. with which he was not already familiar. Before reading my book, was Mr. Hall ’ really aware of the remarkable method used by the Maoris to procure their tattoo ink, as described by me? Did he know all that I have. written about our imported wild animals, and how and when we introduced the wapiti, moose, and chamois? Could he have staied, say in a Radio Quiz, the numbers of farm animals that were in New Zealand at a given date? Was it not news to Mr. Hall that there were originally 63 volcanic cones on the Auckland Isthmus, and was he able to write down without previous notice, the quantities of foods at the Maori feast in 1836? The foregoing are but a few of the many items of interest that I have touched upon, and for Mr. Hall to dismiss such a book as lacking in enlightenment impliés that he is a man with an immense and unique knowledge of this country, and I might suggest that in him you have the complete one-man New Zealand Brains Trust. The fact is that my book does contain much that, is enlightening to the average reader, if not to Mr. Hall. Mr. Hall makes no reference to anything good in my writing, but devotes his brief space to a completely destructive review. There is a display of annoyance when he says, "the lengths to which the author goes to salute the rising sun of the United States set the teeth on edge." Mr. Hall would have spared himself that distressing dental affliction had he bothered to read the Preface to my book, wherein I explain that my writing is directed, in the main, to readers in other .countries, chiefly America. Perhaps it would take the edge off Mr. Hall’s teeth if he could steel himself to read my words, "It is a trait of the American people-that they are rather overseen in their own set-up and do not know much about other and smaller countries where life is just as good." Apparently he brushed aside my statement, "America is a great failure," and the reasons that I have given for such an opinion. There should also be

some consolation for .Mr. Hall in the fact that elsewhere in my writing I have devoted the greater part of a chapter to a criticism of influential Americans, including Colonel McCormick, because of their wordy and pernicious antiBritish bombardments. Does Mr. Hall regard all that as a "salute" to America? In conclusion, Mr. Hall thinks my literary style is "a sort of historian’s Tommy Handley’s half-hour." Should he actually read the book he. will discover that it is not all history-in fact, on the loose cover of the volume are the, words, " it is not a history." I am

not an historian. For his next review, I would recommend to Mr. Hall the New Zealand Year Book. Its conventional literary style would perhaps be more pleasing to him, but of course there is tae possibility that he would be compelled to say even of that excellent publication, "Enlightenitig it is not."

PAUL H.

SIMPSON

(Auckland).