NEW BOOKS

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVI, Issue 19, 14 May 1908, Page 30

NEW BOOKS

Messrs. Whitcombe and Tombs (Wellington, Christchurch, aaid Duneriin) continue to enrich i\ew Zealand literature with new wonts or new editions brought out \n a style that is equal to the best work done by the great publishing houses of the Old Countries. One of their latest additions to their publications is a book of true adventure of the early days of New Zea,and', and easily surpasses in interest the story of Buckley, the white convict who x'lvcd for 32 years among the blacks of Victoria. Messrs. Whitcombe and Tombs' reprint is the remarkable story of ' John Rutherford, the White Chief,' as he was called. His -narrative describes how he was shipwrecked on these shores some eighty years ago. He and his companions were captured by the Maoris. His companions were -killed, but he was befriended by a chief who took Mm anto his tribe. Rutherford married two of the chief's daughters, was tattooed by them, and lived with the Natives for ten years, escaping when an -English vessel touched at the district inhabited by his captors. The story is a very thrilling one. it has added in^ terest on account of the fact that it was published in the first book ever printed on New Zealand. This work was long supposed to be written by Lord Brougham, but it 'is now agreed that the author was George Lidlie Craik, a well-known litterateur of 70 years ago. The present edition has been edited by Mr. J. Drummond, F.L.S., F.Z.S., who has written an interesting introduction to It.

A new and interesting work just issued by Whitcombe and Tombs 'is ' Shingle-Short and Other Verses,' •by B. E. Baughan. Judging by the poem that gives the titlo to the volume, the author is doing for New Zealand what Lawson and Patterson have been doing for Australia. There is in ' Shingle-Short ' plenty of happy imagery, the ' feel ' of the log-hut, and o f the green' fields,, and the ' patter ' of Barney is sure to carry the reader along. New Zealand subjects form the staple of the book—' Maw's Fish,' ' A Bush Section,' etc., and the whole concludes with breezy ' ir 1 addock Songs,' in which the white clover, sunbeams and strawberries, the creek, the wind, the seeds, and the ti-tree (why not, properly, lea-tree 1) have their say, and say it well.

From Louis Gille and Co. (Liverpool St., Sydney), we have received ' Cardinal Newman and the Encyclical Pascendi Dominici Gregis,' an essay by the learned Bishop of Limerick. The essay was published in parriph!let form £n consequence of the refusal of the Editor of the ' Dublin Review ' to insert it in his magazine— a (difference of opinion having arisen between him and the -author in reference to certain paragraphs in the essay. 'This publication deads with Cardinal Newmaoi's relation to the doctrines condemned in the Papal Encyclical on Modernism, and is a complete and overwhelming •answer to those English sympathisers with Modernist motions who sought to base their views on the teachings of the great and intensely Catholic Oratorian.. 'Good wine needs no bush, and the warm praise g'lven to this able work by the Holy Father, and the cordial welcome given to it by Catholic journalism, are ample (evidence of its worth. (Pp. xii— 44, Bvo., Is 3d). The same publishers (G'll'.e and Co., Sydney) a.re 3iow sending out, at a very cheap rate, one of the rbest Catholic books that has for a long time issued 'from the press. This, is an English' translation' of the AWbe Fouard's ' The Christ, the Son of God, A Life of f Our Lord and Sa\'iour Jesus Christ.' There is an introduction by the late Cardinal Manning, and the pre.•sent work is a cheap and popular reprint, with the motes and appendices of the library edition omitted. The great Rouen professor's work is so well and favorably known to a wide circle of Catholic readers all ■over the world that the issue of a popular edition of it,' at a popular price, is something in the nature of 1 "an event ' for the Catholic reading public. ' This singularly able and excellent work,' says Cardinal Manning, ' can need no recommendation. . . 'ihe history of Abbe Fouard unites the sacred narrative of the three-ahd-thirty years of our Saviour's earthly life with the living consciousness of faith, in which the mutual personal relation and the mutual personal love of the Divine Master and His Disci nles are as living and as sustaining at this day as they were when He ascenrded into heaven. To all such this Life of Our 'Lrord will be a golden book.' The Abbe Fouard's work has the blessing of the Pope, and its circulation in Catholic homes and Catholic institutes of education would do much to promote religious knowledge and solid piety. (Pages xli-250, closely printed, 8d).

Another exceedingly valuable cheap reprint is' Father Gerard's crushing answer to Haeckel, ' The Old Riddle

and the Newest Answer.' In its review of this sixpenny edition of the brilliant work in which the learned Jesuit turns Haeckel's ' Weltr-aetsel ' inside out, The London ' Tablet ' says in part : 'As the cheapness of a book naturally means that it is brought witbin tine reach of a large number of readers, one is always glad to learn that it has been found possible to issue any important Catholic work at a lower price. But, in t*>e present instance, there is a particular cause for satisfaction. For, as the reader may remember, the immediate occasion of Father Uerard's answer to Haeckel was not so much the original work of the German writer as a cheap, popular translation which had been scattered broadcast in this country by the Rationalist Press Association. And all who have givei# any consideration to the political economy of controversy wild recognise the importance of placing the two antagonists on the* same level in this matter. The answer may very well be worth ten times as much as the b'pok against which it is directed. But if the price is determined by the intil'nsic value, the wrong side will be given an, undue advantage.' This work of Father Gerard is the best, clearest, and most useful that has yet been written on the thirty-year-old theories which were revamped 1 by the ultra-Darwinian German rationalist writer. A copy of it should be in every school and parochial library, and in the hands of every person wlhiose faitli is exposed to attacks based upon, the shifting unscientific fancies of scientific men who leave the safe path of scientific observation and plunge'into the arena of metaphysics, in which so many of them —and especially Haeckel— are very jniuch at sea. The new edition of Father Gerard's work is furnished with a good index. (Pp. xii-122, Bvo., Cd ; Louis Gille and Co., Liverpool St., Sydney).

The American publishing firm of Joseph F. Wagner (Barclay St., New York) have just issued three useful works chiefly intended for catechists and the clergy. These are 'The Necessity of Religion,' a Lenten course of six sermons ; ' Short Sermons for Low Masses for all the Sundays of the Year ' ; and "A Pulpit Commentary on Catholic Teaching.' The last mentioned is a bulky volume of over 450 pages. It has been brought out as an aid to pastors in discharging one. of the chief duties of the priestly office that has been so strongly urged by a late Encyclical of Pope Pius X.— namely, the duty of catechising. Both priest and catechist will find " in this book a storehouse of welldigested fact and view-point from which their hearers will derive much spiritual profit. Christian doctrine is stated and defended in a way suitable both for the recjniiremenits of the catechist and the preacher, in preparing for their work of instruction. The hook will also, "like Bishop Bellord's ' Meditations on Christian Dogma,' 1 bo found t useful for spiritual reading in religious communities' boarding-schools, etc. This is the first of a series, and deals with the Creed. Three remaining volumes will deal with the Commandments, the Means of Grace, and 4Jie Liturgy of the Ecclesiastical Year. (Pp. 458, 2 dollars ; ; The Necessity of Religion,' pp 61 40 cents ; l Short Sermons,' pp. 114, one dollar ;, Joseph F. Wagner, Barclay St., New York). The latest publications by the Australian Catholic Truth Society are ' The Third French Republic and the (fjhnroh ' by his Grace the Archbishop of Hofoart ; 'Wattle Branches: A Story for Boys,' by ' Rosauo ' ; ' Spiritism,' by Rev. Stanislaus M Hogan, O.P. ; 'The Church's Greatest Treasure,' by the Rev. M. Wia>tson, S.J. ; ' Discovery of Australia by de Quiros, 1606., by his Eminence Cardinal Moran ; • Father Burke, O.P. by Rev. Stanislaus M. Ho&'jn. These are well up to the hiqhl standard of previous, publications of the Society, and contain a good deal of instructive and wholesome reading. _________■—■■■