Page 2 Advertisements Column 2

Auckland Star, Volume XXIII, Issue 16, 20 January 1892, Page 2

T-BCIE B3L-A.O-2-: PQXiIO__3; _ STORY OP MODERN AUSTRALIA

"Dally Graph!-," Mat-h -.'. 1391.

•If the book were not writL-with so Much circumstantial detail we would willingly believe that something had been •dcrilice'd to sensation. It is hard to realise that the wholesale massacres of blacks— men, women, and children—here described, *re wholly accurate, or that licenses are .'ranted to men to shoot ' Myalls' (wild Slacks) on sight; or even that a native ' boy' can be bought in Queensland to\yns for a sovereign or two. Mr. Vogan, dating from New Zealand, states that ' the scenes unci main incidents employed are cliielly the result of my personal observations and •experiences ; the remainder are from perfectly reliable sources.' "

" Daily Chroniclo," April 15, 1391.

"To several colonial stories which have recently been published must now be added •Tho Black Police; a Story of Modern / ustralia,' by A. J. Vogan (London, Hutchinson & Co.). It is an attempt to depict some of the obscurer portions of Australia's shady side, and the scenes and Tain incidents. employed are chiefly, the ••esult of personal observations and experiences. The story iv unquestionably exciting."

"London Morning- Advertiser," Juno 10, 1891.

" Mr. Vogan presents ua with one of the strongest and sternest indictments of the policy pursued towards the aborigines in Queensland that has ever been penned. Unhappily there is only too much evidence '.o bear out a portion of his charges. That native camps have been from time to time ' rounded up ' apd their inmates mercilessly shot down, either in retaliation for some alleged offence on the part of the blacks or out of sheer wantonness, is a tact patent to anyone acquainted with the colony in question. Nor can it be denied that the capture of black girls by white settlers for immoral purposes is altogether unknown, though in this connection it must not be forgotten that the native method of courtship in itself partakes of the characteristics popularly associated with the ..ooing of the Sabine^ Jiy the Romans.: But Mr. Vogan goes rather further than we can venture to confirm him in his assertions respecting, the employment of the black police in the slaughter of their less civilised fellows. His statements on this head are certainly most startling, and deserve sifting to the utmost. . . . Mr. Vogan has produced

a highly interesting book containing a succession of stirring incidents capitally described, and some excellent portrayals of types and characters familiar tosojourners beneath the Southern Cross. He is, too, to be specially commended for the clear and graphic touches .with which, without any overdone attempts at word painting, he puts the salient features of local landscape before the reader's eye."

" Scottish Leader," March 19, 1891,

"' The Black Police,' by A. J. (London, Hutchinson), ia a tale of modern Australia. It is devoted to an exposure of the cruelties and treacheries by which the white man ousts the black from the home of his fathers. There can be little doubt that many of the pictures which the writer draws of Australian frontier life are true to nature. If that be so, they are little creditable to the people who practise and permit such horrors."

." Scotsman," March 9, ISSI,

"The freshness of its material, and a certain rude vigour that goes through it all, make the book interesting. The story seems to have been written with a purpose— to expose and reprehend the treatment, represented as brutal, that is undergone by the aborigines of Australia at the hands of the whites."

" Manchester Examiner," March 7.

" A cryptogram from a dead hand indicating to a living friend a hidden treasure is not a new conception, but the present story derives some novelty from the manner of its narration, as well as from the circumstances that precede and accompany the discovery of the cryptogram. The action opens aiid closes in New Zealand, but the theatre of the main events is in Australia, and especially in Queensland. These events aro somewhat of the ' Wild West' character, but they include, in addition to a pleasant tale of friendship rewarded and true love triumphant, some heartrending exposures of the sanguinary and tyrannical treatment meted out to the aborigines by the European settlers. If what is here set down even remotely resembles the true state of affairs, the attention of the Colonial Secretary is urgently required. The hero bought out there a young attendant as he might have bought a portmanteau; he paid £2 for him. The story proper is agreeable enough in character, and is told with warmth and animation, which, however, sometimes degenerates into a hilarious frothincss winch defeats its own object. . ... The episode of Billy and the ' hatter' will raise up friends for the author, and it is not the only bit of exquisite writing which this very unequal but very promising volume contains."

PRICE—Two Shillings, • AT ALL BOOKSELLERS'.