Last Test for Otago

New Zealand Listener, Volume 20, Issue 518, 27 May 1949, Page 5

Last Test for Otago

its scattered sons and daughters to come home and celebrate its centennial; .and all who could did. . Now it puts them to the test again. The story of its first hundred years has been put into -a- book* that will cost buyers 47/6, but no one in Dunedin asks whether the wanderers will rally a second time. They will. The volume will sell as fast as it can be printed and distributed, first because it is a very good book, second because it looks a very good book, and in the third place because it is very big. All buyers like quantity if they get quality too, and there will be very few critics of Dr. McLintock south of the Waitaki. It may be pointed out north of the Waitaki that the author who fills 900 pages of history in three years fills them from existing material; that there may be time to rake Over, re-arrange, and re-value, but not to search and discover; that Dr. McLintock has come through a terrifying ordeal with credit, and . YEAR ago Otago asked all sometimes with real distinction, but that no one must confuse what he has done with what still remains to be done, Criticism of that kind is necessary, but it is high praise too. It is another way of saying: "In history there are no last words. This is so like a last word that we must put readers on their guard." good to read critically, and to buy critically; but it is also good to trust ‘our emotions. The native of Otago who takes this book in his hands, turns over the pages, and follows some of the half-forgotten clues, will soon be too far gone with longing to be capable of criticism. There will be a moment of alarm as he breaks into the third pound; then he will see Cabbage-tree Ned or H. S. Fish, P. B. Fraser or Professor James Black, and thrift will fly out of the window. It is certainly