WHOSE OTAGO?
Sir-In his review of The Story of Otago a charge is made by "O.D." that the author, in a distorted picture, presents the southern province as "a swept and garnished Otage of his Puritan imagination." The example chosen is that of the gold-rush period, referring to which the author states that "the gold-diggers were, generally speaking, honest and law-abiding." The implication to the reviewer is that the author "almost thinks they were God-fearing." Le: "O.D." turn to eye-witness accounts (such as that of Gabriel Read), and to historians such as Pember Reeves and Angus Ross. If he still doubts let him turn to Alan Mulgan, who, in the standard history Maori and Pakeha, is even more emphatic than the writer of The Story of Otago. Says Mulgan, "Considering the conditions under which these raw communities lived, their conduct was astonishingly good." It is unfortunate that "O.D.", in this and other reviews, appears to reveal a regrettable bias against any reference to the beneficial influence of the Christian religion. Still, it must be conceded that "O.D." is a very remarkable old gentleman. He tells us that "the Otago of his (the author’s) book is not the Otago that most of us lived in." Very true, for 80 years ago "most of us" had not been born.
A. H.
REED
(Dunedin).
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19471031.2.14.1
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 17, Issue 436, 31 October 1947, Page 5
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221WHOSE OTAGO? New Zealand Listener, Volume 17, Issue 436, 31 October 1947, Page 5
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