Page 2 Advertisements Column 4

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

"Chrlsi-Imrch Telegraph," May 19.

I "No Australian writer wlio is now wielding the pen in London or the Colonies I has been so successful in the choice of a theme as a New Zealander who has recently fouud a London publisher—we mean Mr. Arthur James Vogan. . . . The book is undoubtedly written with a purpose. . Itr leading idea is to illustrate the manner in which the Australian blacks are shot down by the squatters, especially in the back districts of Queensland. The author, in the brief preface to his readers, says, ' 1 liaic- endeavoured to depict some of the obscurer portions of Australia's shadow life. The scenes and main incidents employed are chiefly the result of my personal observations and . experiences ; the remainder from perfectly i liable -sources.' The writer gives a brief si: teh of Auckland city, and •■hen transports hie her > to Queensland for die pin pose ol fiiiiuiiy out the last restingplace of his uncle, an explorer, and also to discover, by means of a last letter from him, a famous gold mine. This quest brings him into contact with the squatter life of the outlying district of Queensland, and also makes liini an eye witness of the brutal manner in which the black population are being annihilated in the interests of civilisation and wealth. If we are to believe Mr. Vogan, the blacks of the colony of Queensland are not only'shot down without remorse, but evidently with a degree of glee by both native policemen and settlers. One of tho chief instruments in the slaughter of the aboriginals are the native mounted police. These consist of black ' boys,' as they are called, under the command of European inspectors, whose cruelty was never surpassed in the slavery days of America."

"Ta.panakl Herald," June 8, IS9I.

"This work is made interesting by a skilfully constructed plot, and his sketch of social life, in Sydney is very readable. The story opens in Auckland, where the hero receives a mysterious letter from a dead uncle, written with ink which has to be made visibie with chemicals, in which he is informed of a rich gold-bearing mine in Australia. Thia causes Claude Angland to go to Queensland, and th' 6 author has thus an opportunity of describing Australian life and scenery. The atrocities as related in this book are painfully realistic. The lie.ro discovers a rival to the now Mount Morgan gold mine,and this is told in a very powerful manner; the weird scenery and the surroundings of the cavern being minutely detailed."

"Southerns News," May 29, IS9J,

"' The Black Police,' by a New Zealand author, Mr. Arthur Vogan, is not'of the penny dreadful order; it takes rank far above much of the trash successfully produced of recent years for the novelreadipg public. The book is not a novel, though an interesting story ia interwoven with the revelations regarding the terrible treatment of the blacks in Queensland— revelations as thrilling as anything recorded in Harriet Ueccher Stowe's celebrated work, ' Uncle Tom's Cabin.' If half the allegations aro true, Mr. Vogan has done a good and noble work by directing the attention of the world to a condition of matters that is nothing less than an awful reproach to any civilised and Christian community. The front cover of the book contains a pictnre ot one of the shameful scenes said to be frequently enacted in the back parts of Queensland —an unfortunate gin, roped by the hands to a stockyard, is undergoing a Hogging with the lash on the bare back from one of the station hands. Tht illustration on the frontispiece is still more revolting. A surprise party of squatters "nave come across a native camp, and, in the early dawn, ' disperse' by slaying with rifle bullet ami tomahawk ' every native man, woman, and child in the little settlement. The dead and mutilated bodies of the unfortunate aborigines strew the ground, while a mother kneeling, with an infant clasped to her breast, pleads nnavailingly to be spared."

"Canterbury Press," May 18,1891.

" ' The Black Police.'—-The discovery by Claude Angland of the rival to Mount Morgan is a wonderfully clever piece of word painting, the scenery and the weird surroundings of the cavern being described very powerfully. The book is well worth perusal."

M Now Zealand Times," May S, 1891,

"The story ought to be read in order that the wholesale, lawless, ferocious butchery of the. unhappy Queensland blacks may be remembered, and measures taken for putting an end to it.

" The work is apparently written with s, philanthropic motive as its raisoti d'etre, namely, to call attention to the atrocities which are said to be perpetrated by the black troopers,etc.,in Northern Queensland in ' dispersing ' camps of aboriginals, who, from their proximity to squatting stations, may be unpleasant neighbours to the great squatters and rnnholders. The best parts of the novel are the descriptions of the blacks of Northern Queensland."