LITERARY.

Auckland Star, Volume XLV, Issue 188, 8 August 1914, Page 14

LITERARY.

Tn [fulfillment of her last •wishes the ashee of Mrs. Robert Louis Stevenson will repose beside the body of her husband on the summit of Mount Vaca, Samoa. This -was made public, on the authority of Mrs. Isabel Strong, daughter of Mrs. Stevenson. .Before the door of the. itomib will be inscribed the last stanza of Stevenson'e verse to his wife: "Teachier, tender comrade, wife, Fellow farer, true .through life. Heart whole and soul fire, The August Father gave to mc." To this tomb ihero will be no moans of aoc&B but the rough mountain ipath visitors have already worn. When the will of Mrs. Stcveneon, who died in Santa Barbara several months ago, is settled, her children—Mrs. Strong and IJoyd Osbornc—will takt; her ashes to Samoa. The aahes are now in San Francisco.

China, where some drastic Press laws hare been promulgated, possesses the oldest newspaper iv the world, the "Peking Ozetto," founded in A.D. 908. At one time this was the only journal allowed to appear in the country, but within the last r>o years a number of other journals have, been established. Ly Chao-ipee, a <"hine<<e mandarin, in an account of -the journalism of his native country, classes it under seven heads— "antique, litteraire. Henri on tnondain, commun, domi-vulgairo, familier et epistolaire." He adds that in no other country are newspapers -treated so respectfully as in China, where all the children are Trained to venerate anything in the shape of printed matter. They would never drciim of using a newspaper for such purposes as wratpping tip a parcel. A manuscript by the late Frank Xorris. the young American novelist who wrote "'The Pit,"' 'having recently been discovered, i* shortly to ibe published, i It was supposed to have been lost in the San Francisco earthquake. The story is entitled ''Vandover and the Brute." written nt the same time as "The Octopiie" and "The Pit." Jt was Jnid aside by the author in order that he might complete his trilogy with "The Wheat," the book .which he' never lived to write. His effect* were put in store in San Franoiaco, and when the earthquake omirred. followed iby fire, the store in which they were was burned, jam! co, it was l>clievcd, was the manuscript of "Vandovcr and the Brute." Some yeara nifter it was discovered that the rase which contained the manuscript had been moved to another warehouse, which wca-ped the flames. ■Here it waa discovered by the author's brother, Charles Norrte. Mr. Heinei inarm is to , iamc the book in England.

What is the proper food for authors? Tt is not easy to 4»y down the law. Some produce their results on a vesetarian diet. Rut it k* possible, as a general rule, to trace the trail of the Hrar.il nut in their writings. Poets, one would suppose, would require only the mo=t ethereal forms of food. But there are exceptions. I know a .poet <rav<* a writer in the "Daily Citizen") whose mo-e soulful and heart-stirring' versen can only Lie produced after beefsteak and stout, while a writer of the most blood-curdling eerials is restricted to a diet of minced Ix-pf and h o t water. But a proper study of this food question might yield the most amazing results and it might <hb to produce novelists poet*., and dramatiets by a •irwper regulation of diet. Just" a« amorous maidens it, olden days went to their favourite wizards to "give, them love potions to administer to their backward swains, so in the future they may go to tho food specialist for 1 ho' rnonu calculated at once. to produce the tender Twsaon m the most (unwilling of men. n . r K r a 'f, - S °" <> ° f thp few P "ho rote the,,- ownepiUph. Shortly brforo hs death, whioh occurred in IJome at at the age of 2.-,. he had had a letter from Fanny |? O wn. to vhom he was 'betrothed, which he had not tihc .■oura-e to read. He directed that it. should he buried with him, and (hat the inscription on hie grave should be— HcTc lies (Snn whose name was writ In •and that i< the inscription which visitors to the Knglislt cemetery in Rome may. still read upon his hendwtone. which xtandu a few paces from the tomb of his friend Shelley. WiHia«m Barnes, the Dorset poet. who. though a 'man of great learning and culture, wrote almost all liitj poetry in the dialect of his native county, inadvertently wrote his own epitaph. TrUieu is inscribed on the pedestal of his beautiful statue opposite the Month poroh of the parish clniivh of Dorchester. The poet's, kindliness made him universally beloved, and when he died nobody could think of a Iwtter epitaph for him than one which, he ■wrote himself: —

Xno noir T hope this kindly foarp Is pne to rind a hptter [>lencc; Hut still wl* v<Vk a-left hplifnd, •He'll always be a-kept in mind. l 4 oges Churchyard, which l»as been made universally known by .the facts that in it Ofay's Elegy was composed and Mi.it both the poet and his mother 'lie buried there, contains one of the 'most pathetic epitaphs to be found anywhere. Every visitor reads upon the flat stone which covers the. grave of Gray's mother the statement tihat sho is laid there.'"by one who has the misfortune to survive her.' , But (iray really wrote his own epitaph «t the close of his Klegy in the lines, "Ifere rests his head \ipon the lap of earth," and ending with the. stanza: — Xn (farther seek his merits to disclose, Or draw Ills frailties from their dread abode (There they alike In tremblinc hope reposci. The liosora of his Father and Ills God. Tennyson wrote Ms own epitaph when he penned, in 'his eighty-first year, that fine lyric. "Crossing the Bar," which was set to music by Sir Frederick Bridge and sung by the choir of Westminster Abhey -.it the poefs funeraJ. He directed the present Lord Tennyson to see that this poem was placed last in «ny futurn editions of his works. Surely there is no finer poet'e epita'pli than this: —

And when from out tills bourne of Time :ind Plaoe The flood shall bear mc fur, [ hope lo uneot my jiilot. face to face, When J have croised the har. It is not everybody reci-Hs the- lindoublc/1 fact that Robert Bums wrote ■lias own ejribapih, in which he puts a good <ira.l of advice to those who follow him to avoid the errors ho. himself hud fallen into. 'Hip most pathetic terse of Hum*' epitaph is this: — The poor inhabitant below Was ijuick to learn, anil wise to know, Ami keenly felt, tlio frifendly slow But Uiouffhtlu«w follies laid him low, And softer dame.

A love poem written by the late Dr. Joseph Parker when he was a young man is published for the first time in •the "Christian Commonwealth." The verses describe how the great preacher proposed to and was accepted by Mis 9 Ann Ncsbitt, his first wife: — Locked in each other's fond embrace We sat npart from human eye. Athl sweetly made exchange of hearts In vows no foes can falsify. Never musrle tlirHled my soul ■So pare, so boljr. and divine. As wueii, mid tears which mocked control, She sweetly whispered. "I am thine!" I clasp't lier to my panting heart. And with a warm and slowing kiss Expressed that joy 1 could not speak. ■My deep, unfathomed, heartfelt bliss. Mr Archibald Marshall is a novelist of some repute—at least, he commands a. fair circle of readers: but it is doubtful whether "Roding Rectory"' (Messrs Stanley, Paul, and Co.) will appreciably increase his vogue. It is a long story of life in an Knglish provincial town, turning upon the rivalry between chiireti and chapel, and showing up with admirable impartiality the failing* on both sides. Written in Mr Marshall's usual graceful style, and with an occasional pinch of the saving salt of humour, thie book is, on the whole, readable «and entertaining— clever fiction, but without a hint of genius. In less than a year "Roding Kectory" has attained to its second cdia bad test of popularity.

IN WILD NEW ZEALAND. Dr. James (Mackintosh 8011. who for six years filled the position of Director of the Geological Survey of 'New Zealand, is a man of note* in scientific circles, who rcndereJd velua'blp service to this country in the report* lie made on the ideological features of the (Dominion. 'Now, in " Tlie Wilde of Maoriland." published .by iMcssr*. Mncmillnn ami Co.. .Ltd., London, we got another view «vf this talented man, as he hero presents ■himself in tlie. character of general observer of ecencry, men and manners. Incidentally, ton, we make the acquaint--.nloe of Dr. Bell lls literary artist, for much of hifi work in this interesting book I>ptrays a genius for vivid description, and the deft, ttnidh of a master of words and phrase*. To tlioee who may imagine that anything a scientist writes mufft "he dry ami tedious, (Or. Bell's delineations of "The Waldfi of New Zealand" will come as a. pleasurable disillusionment. As the title implies, this is a hook out of the common nick of records of travel in Xew Zealand. It deals mainly with parts of the country that are rarely visited, and are more or lest* inaccessible to all save those who are prepared to "rough it." and to run the risk of accidental injury or of semi-star-vation through getting lost in the mazes of bush and mountain. On ou<> occasion, while in Che Karamea dit-trict. near the northern extremity of the South Island. Bγ. ißell and .party lost their way, provisions ran short, and they had to rely for sustenance, on the wekas and wild thicks they were able to serure. The book is divided into nine chapters, right of which deal with the different districtscomprised in the " wild" country, wihile th c ninth ie devoted to geography and climate. Of the physical features of the Dominion, Dr. Bell declares: ".Here the traveller may see thermal phenomena as wonderful as tihose of tlie Yellowstone in America; may visit great, steepwalled, deep "watered sounds, bordered by a vegetation of tropioa.l luxuriance, and resembling in mode of origin the famed itiords of •Scandinavia; and may climb great snowclad peaks or explore huge t-nowfields rivalling those of ho Alps, the Caucasna, or tHie 'Ftiinalava*;." The climate Jie describes as "in general one of tlie most eipiable in the world," yet within ■the Dominion's bounds may .be found

'• every variation, from the almost tropical warmth of the northernmost parts to the almost .Arctic cold of fho higher Alps, and from the excessive dryness of th<. Otago uplands to the amazing liumidity of the fiord region." From Wie head. ing.s of tli.p ejiaplera some, idea may bo obtained of the scope of the book. These are: "Prom \Oian<»aroa to iNorth Cape." " Rambles in the Hauraki Goldficlds," "'.Mayor Island." " Among the Volcanoes." "Through the Urcwera. Country," -The Wilds of Kararaca," "The Bienrt of the Southern Alps," and "The Croat Dougla* Glacier." <ln these loeali- j tip.s there are scenes of rugged grandeur and ibcairty, untrodden fastnesses of Nature and wild life that must prove fascinating to a healthy man. Small wonder is it. therefore, to find 'Dr. Hell saying:—" As 1 ■write there comes f> mc a great, strong yearning to 'be astride once, more my trusted pony, and svamper close to the great white breakers along tho hard sand 'beaches near the North Cape; to vniell the smoke of tile, ratnwood fire beneath the shade of a giant rimu in the l T ro\vera; >to see the sun set in brilliant splendour over tlie tussockcovered highlands on the plateau of (Mount Arthur; to hear the crunch of tlie hard snow .beneath nny feet on the enowtfields above .Franz Josef jrlaeier; to look upon thp giant peak of tAorangi emerging roseate from the mists of ■morning, and to see the tinxy slopes and white creets of the seaward Kaikouras rising majpfiticallv above th«. blue Pacific." But his pictures of Wild Xew Zealand, though drawn jrraphically and sympathetically, are not all of an iigreeal>le kind. There ii> a jjrint sketch of a journey over a. six-mile stretch of road near Awanui, in the far north l —a road vvorec than any the author had encountered in the wilds of Canada or Siberia; and this is followed by the record of a night of 'horror in a certain ''Travellers' Best," in the Awanui district, where Maoris and Croatians played 'billiards to the marking of an English " toff," then drank and quarrelled and fought all night long, while their collection of mongrel curs, fought and barked and yelped outside—l Dr. Bell a rod hia two companions vainly trying to sleep in a single damp apartment with one broken-down double bed to which they had been consigned. In ihis references to the Maoris J)r ; Bell is usually generously complimentary, but Jie confesses to getting a fright when a iband of natives near Port Jaoketm, at the northern extremity of the Coromandel 'Peninsula, danced a furious "haka," and in their excitement peeled oft" most of their clothing and assumed a ferocious aspect. iMore agreeable, though equally surprising, was his experience on meeting a. buxom (Maori dnnie on a bush track near Coromandel. '"'I determined with tlie enthusiasm of the neophyte to air upon her the one or two words of Maori whicOi had recently been acquired at 'Rotorua. "Tena koe," I said, beginning with the Maori greeting. The lady *tm>k her j*reat. du&ky paw in my face, shook mc warmly by the hand, but to my surprise, exclaimed, Sjrood day. I not epeaik Maori.'" We might go on quoting from this entertaining volume, which has not a. dull page in it, but epacc forbids. The value of the book is enhanced by numerous photographic reproductions of sce.nery, .by eight maps, and by eight coloured •prints of sketches ma4e by Mr. C. H. Eastlake.