LITERARY.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 64, 15 March 1919, Page 18

LITERARY.

Mr. Roberts Scott, who has conducted '"The Near East Review" capably for some time, announces the early publication of an independent review for Asia, the objects of which are the better interpretation of the East to the Weet, the promotion of a good understanding between Japan and China, common acti )n of the English speaking peoples, and social improvement. . The platform is certainly wide enough and there should be room for a publication .giving the views on local problems of men either horn in the various Eastern countries or who have spent most of a lifetime actively in association with their peoples. The fount of publication is Tokio.

Mrs. Humphry Ward, in her volume of ■'Reminiscences," quotes a letter of Matthew Arnold's, in which he refers to a visit of Miss Martinoau, who lived near, and who was on that occasion the fellow g-uest of Charlotte Bronte. Arnold writes:—"'At seven came Mies Martineau and Miss Bronte (Jane Eyre) ; talked to Miss LMartineau (who blasphemes frightfully) about the prospects of the Church of England, and, wretched man that I am, promised to go and see her cow-keeping miracles to-morrow, I who hardly know a cow from a sheep. I talked to Miss Bronte (past thirty and plain, witli expressive grey eyes though) of her curates, of French novels, and her education in a school at Brussels, and sent the lions roaring to their dens at half-past nine."

! In "Flood Tide," by Daniel Chase I (Macmillan and Co., New York), the central figure is a man, a dreamer and a student, who is forced by circumstances I into a business career. It is his story I that Mr. Chase tells: the story of his success, of the price which he pays for it and of the way in which he ultimately achieves the happiness which has eluded him for so long. The spirit of the sea broods over the entire narrative, adding much to its charm. The lad's boyhood in a New England coast town ie interestingly and convincingly portrayed; as also are his poignant melancholy and his loneliness of spirit in the midst of material succees in the city. The theme of the book is particularly appealing and is handled by Mr. Chase' in a way that shows real understanding of human character and motive.

His Highness the Aga Khnn, in * rcent book entitled "India in Transit '■ n , (]>e Warner), boldly advocates the c in.

version of East Africa into an Indian colony. He brushes aside the South African claim to it as "un-English," and says that Indians could have easily wrested the territory from Germans if the Empire had not needed their services elsewhere. He contends that India needs a country to which ehe can send her surplus population, since Indian emigrants are shut out of the self-governing Dominions. In point of climate and physiography, East Africa is ideally suited for Indian settlement, and India and East Africa have been in touch with each other for hundreds of years. Indian immigration would, moreover, he thinks, be in the interests of the East Africans, who would easily adopt the Indian methods and implements of agriculture and industry, whereas they would find it difficult to come up to the western level at a single bound, even if the white man was inclined to take up the role of civiliser in East Africa.

We are pleased to see that "The Near East" magazine, which contemplated ceasing publication, hae issued a Xmas Number. Out here the magazine's interest is based on the fact that one can accept its articles on China and Japan as in most cases representing a more matured view than much of the matter that finds its way into print from the pen of the intelligent but often ill-in-formed gtobe trotter. To the thoughtful resident in China or Japan it offers a choice of articles on world topics that indirectly bear on local advancement, and the education of a sound public opinion. In this Christmas issue the editor points out that there is writing reflecting not only the Western point of view, but a section devoted to China and another to India. A paper on the Reconstruction of Europe discusses the problem somewhat more basically than some current writing, and there is a timely plain word or tiwo to would-be relief workers in Siberfa. The art passages include two sketches of Tokyo street scenes by Miss ElizaIbeth Keith, and a specimen of contemporary Japanese sculpture which will interest art students, but hardly appeal in its crudity to the general taste.

A curiously bulky and discursive collection of facts and opinions reaches us from Melbourne in the form of two volumes, entitled "The Twin Ideals; an Educated Commonwealth," by Dr. James Vi. Barrett, a leading Melbourne doctor. j The papers published herein consist of , letters written to the Melbourne and London Press on educational, medical, and other subjects, papers contributed to medical journals, and lectures and addresses. Dr. Barrett takes pretty i well all mankind for his province, and ! manages to write interestingly on an ; astonishing range of topics. He is a very keen educationist—ne was one of a committee of four that reorganised Melbourne University— and educational j subjects account for a great part of the ; volumes. Other subjects range from j Imperial policy to grand opera in Australia, from the treatment of venereal disease to the problem of settlement in Northern Australia. It is hardly to be expected that any one man could range with unfailing authority over such a number and variety of subjects, but there is much of value in the volumes, particularly on the scientific side, and in problems affecting Australia. There are, for instance, valuable papers on the Australian climate, and the suitability of tropical Australia for white people. That Queensland women show the effects of their climate much more than men he attributes to the foolish custom of building houses in Queensland in the same style as houses in a temperate climate. Dr. Parrett has much to say about the birth-rate and infantile mortality, and in one of his- most interesting chapters he shows by figures how valuable has been the work in NewZealand of Dr. Truby King and his assistants. The volumes contain a great deal of information useful to the student of Australian problems. H. K. Lewis and Co., Ltd., London, are the publishers.

One of the most interesting chapters in Winifred Stephens' "The France I Know" (Chapman and Hall) is that on the book world of Paris during the war.

"New books were always pouring in," says Miss Stephens. "Neither scarcity of paper nor the proximity of the Germans to the capital seemed to stem the tide." To aid in the distribution and sale of books, it seems, French publishers have resorted to co-operation and formed various societies.