FIRE IN THE FERN
A PIONEER LOOKS BACK AGAIN. By Ww. K. Howitt. Oswald-Sealy (N.Z.) Ltd. R. W. K. HOWITT again casts his mind back to the frontier conditions of Taranaki in the ’seventies when the scarcely-pacified Maori menaced the peace of mind, if not the life and property, of the settler, fully engaged in any case with that other giant antagonist, the bush, and the poor communications which it imposed on him, He ends a book crammed with interesting titbits (if not with the massive facts) of history with a series of short memoirs, partly personal recollections, of the first 19 Prime Ministers of the Dominion. Mr. Howitt is one who looks for the good in all men, so that it is perhaps unfair not to accord him the same treatment, but I cannot let pass his description of Bryce as "the hero of Parihaka" without suggesting that this might well be misunderstood. This book, in part an expression of its author’s very genuine public spirit, is an apt reminder that the name "pioneer" can be worn with good right not only by the men and women of 1840, but by many persons still vigorously alive.
D.O.W
H.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19471121.2.24.2
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 17, Issue 439, 21 November 1947, Page 12
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199FIRE IN THE FERN New Zealand Listener, Volume 17, Issue 439, 21 November 1947, Page 12
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