THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE

New Zealand Listener, Volume 19, Issue 483, 24 September 1948, Page 15

THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE

THIS NEW ZEALAND, NOW AND THEN. By L. R. C. Macfarlane. Simpson and Williams, Christchurch.

ERE we have a traveller’s tale clearly intended for those of us who hope to see New Zealand first. The glossy illustrations are straight from the Tourist Department’s ample folios, even if the "Entrance to the Cathedral, Waitomo Caves," does show, as its principal feature, the wide slippery duck-walk so familiar to visitors at that tourist resort. But surely the Department must have squirmed a little when the Diesel launch which serves the riverside villages on the Wenganui became a "houseboat." Alas for Pipiriki. Mr. Macfarlane knows some parts of New Zealand very well. He is happiest in his descriptions of his own North Canterbury and of farming areas elsewhere. He has the countryman’s eye for ‘land and the manner in which it is used. In cities he is less happy, and this is reflected in his work. An exception is Christchurch. He has a very considerable affection for that city, and it shows even when he is most entertainingly detailing the welter of overlapping local bodies that make the electors such busy folk on polling days. It would be interesting to imagine the evidence he would offer before the Com- mission at present examining the "Greater Christchurch" project. , In the wilder parts of our country Mr. Macfarlane is content to adopt, conventional attitudes. This is especially noticeable in his treatment of the West Coast of the South Island. The inhabi-

tants there are a little tired of being re-| garded as in some way or other museum pieces. And folk in central Hawke’s Bay will be interested to ‘hear of the "sweet warm plains of Hawke’s Bay where frosts are seldom heard of." | The author is no stylist. His knowledge of the mechanics of the English language is rudimentary. Clearly he knows what he wants to say, but he tries’ to communicate it in the same way as. he would in conversation. The trouble is that one misses the facial expression, gesture, and vocal stress that eke out. meaning in conversation. Nevertheless, Mr. Macfarlane does succeed in éstablishing a ceftain footing with his readers. Perhaps it is because he has such #n acute eye for what goes on in a small town, perhaps because of his contagious gusto, perhaps because among his new and amusing stories one meets such old friends as the libel on a hotel in Rotorua, Occasionally, however, there’ll be an observation too good to be missed. These for example: (Of Central Otago) "If you can strike a match on a.dark night and see one blade of grass the land is in good heart." (Of Cook Strait) "It, separates the Mainlanders from the. North Islanders . .. and it deepens alas. understandings." Followers of racing will be interested in the suggestion that there should be a dividend on the last horse, but that the jockey should be fined. And I should like to commend to the attention of a certain town in North Auckland this story: "I went to the railway station and said to the clerk in the booking office, ‘I want to go to Whangarei, ‘You mean you have to go to Whangarei,’ he replied, ‘No one wants to go to Whangarei.’ "

J.D.

McD.