Page 3 Advertisements Column 3

Auckland Star, Volume XXIII, Issue 33, 9 February 1892, Page 3

fc~?L_ !5r£»E5SSr-"/ / #1 » \ I 1/ TTTTc "lT s <a_G"Kl "PO.TjTO.HI- __«-£>_-> ____iir_« ___W _____-____!_-__-. ->.»__.-.,*..-,'>- M .._.«TW____u_J__M«™«--T_n. • ! *-f_t_lJ»' _-_»!---_•_*--.'_-_«■ <__••_.-_---■ "*»<. .*__-■ " r..!•_....*-jtW* i»__i__ Bfc «___&«, a..*!! __ A STORY OF MODERN AUSTRALIA. By &. Jo VOGAN.

"Daily Graphic," Mai'dfi 01. Ti' the book were not writ! »'itli so much circumstantial detail we would willingly believe that something had I men aeriliecd to sensation. It is havo '.» realise :hat the wholesale massacres of hlneus-*----'ncii, women, and children—here described, •ire wholly accurate, or that licosiws are •ranlcd to men to shoot 'Myalls' (wdd '•iachs) on sight; or even that a native boy ' can be bought in Queensland towns! for a sovereign or two. Mr. Vogan, dating | from 'New Zealand, states that Mho scenes urn! main incidents employed arecluciiy the to.-ult of my personal observations ami isporicnocs ; the remainder arc from perfectly reliable sources.' " " Daily Chronicle," AppJl Ja, 1391. ••To several colonial stories which have recently been published must now bo added • The Black Police; a Story of Modem Australia,' by A, J. Vogan (London, .luiehiiisDii _i Co.). It is an attempt c<> dcjiict sontn of the obscurer portions of Australia's shady side, and the scenes and •• i-.iu iiicidcnls employed arc chielly the •ciult of personal observations and cxperi•i"'(ts. The story ia unquestionably • ■. :itin;;." "London Morning l Advertiser," Juno 10. ISOI. ■' Mr, Vogan presents us with one of Ihe strongest and sternest indictments of the poiicy pursued towards the aborigines in Queensland that has ever been penned. I'tdmppily them is only too much evidence "ii beru' out a portion of hia charges. Hint native camps have been from time to tune i.'.uit'ii.ii up ' and their inmates mercilessly -hot down, either in retaliation for some dlogeil ohence on the part of the black* or i.r,; of sheer wantonness, ia a fact patent to anyone acquainted with the colony in (uestion. Nor can it be denied that the ■■ii .lure of black girls by while settlers for | immoral purposes is altogether unknown, ihuigh in this connection it must not. he hcgotteii that tlio native method of cottrl;- J •iliip in itself partaken of the characteristics j popularly associated with the wnoiugof the j Si-bines by the Boinana. But Mr. Vug.in -nos rather further than we can •.orii.ttio to ] confirm him in his assertions respect:n» the employment of the black police in the slaugiiter of their loss civilised follows, j II:a statements on this head are certainly i mot startling, and deserve sifting to the j utmost Mr. Vogan has produced 1 n highly interesting book containing aj succession of stirring incidents capitally i described, and some excellent portrayals of types and characters familiar: osojourners I beneath the Southern Cross. Fie is, 100, to j be specially commended for the clear and graphic touches with which, without any overdone attempts at word pa.imi.--r, he nuts iho salient matures of local landscape before the render's eye." "Scottish Leador," March 19, 1891, " ' The Black Police,' by A. J. Vogan /London, Hutchinson), is 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 oi' his fathers: There can he little doubt that many of the pictures which the writer draws of 'Australian frontier life arc tree to nature. If that be so, they are little cieditable to the people who practise and permit such horrors." " Scotsman," March G, iSGJ. "The freshness of ita material, and a certain rude vigour that goes through it nil, make the book interesting. The story seems to have been written with a purpose - to expose and repiclient! Ihe treatment, represented as brutal, that is undergone by the aborigines of Australia at the hands of t'.ie whites." " Manchester Elxamlnor," 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 maimer of it's narration, as well as from the circumstances that precede and accompany the discovery of the cryptogram. The action opens and closes in New Zealand, but the theatre of the main events is in -Australia, and especially in Queensland. These events are 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 treatmentmeted out to the aborigines by the European settlers. If what is here .set down even remotely resembles the true state of affairs, ! tho 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 frothine.ss which defeats its own object. ... The episode of Billy and the ' hatter' will raise up friends for the author, and it in not ike 1 only bit of exquisite writing which !•!'.;•> very unequal but very promising vo'nivn contains.'

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