LITERARY.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 239, 6 October 1923, Page 18

LITERARY.

j Mrs. Jack London has written an illustrated volume on "The New Hawaii," announced by Messrs. Mills and Boon. The volume includes three articles by Jack London himself, entitled "My Hawaiian Aloha." Two novels dealing with Australian life have been added to the N.S.W. Bookstall series. "Son of the Bus];," by Jack North, records certain stirring events on a cattle station, including a sensational chase of two escaped criminals. '"Ehe Great Turon Mystery," by Arthur Crocker, is a bushranging story. "The Temple and other Poems," translated from the Chinese by Arthur Waley, which Messrs. Allen and Unwin publish, serve to remove a common impression that the Chinese never wrote long poems. Descriptive poems of considerable length are quoted from the ancient authors, together with several narrative ballads. Mr. E. V. Lucas has revised hie "Wanderer in London" for a new editiop, which Messrs. Methuen publish. Among the changes are fresh descriptions in accordance with the post-war hanging of the National Gallery, tlje Te,te Gallery, and the Wallace Collection. There >» also much new material. Messrs. Allen and Unwin have in the press a work entitled "Political Crime," by W. G. Carletan Hall, Barrister-at-Law, whose aim ie "to explain the failure of the British Government in recent times to deal effectively with the grqwr ing tendency to use violence in the pursuit of political or revolutionary aims." The "Timee (Literary Supplement,' 0 In a notice of Mr. Louis' -H. Victory's "Looms of Orchil and other P<)em»," published in Wellington, quotes what it considers the poet's best single poem, that tracing the "Symbols" of Shakespearian masterpiece in the world o* nature:— Stately onte led mc to know "Ours the strength of Prospero." Bubbles dancing down a strcnm— "We are merrj Touchstone's dream." Magpies chattering rtnee their blxtb — "Ours Is Grattano't mirth"; Rustling leaves that whispered low— "Such were slgbe of Borneo." "Damascus Gate," by Ernest TJaymond (CaeseH), deals with the early days of a 'boy and girl, Oscar Pool Sh'attery and Leila Shattery Pool, both adventurers born and aspirants after great things. The book traces the parallel lives of Oscar and Leila, showing Oscar marching jssily and relentlessly up the road to material greatness, and Leila, in whom the in Merited ambition and pride are sublimated, essaying the more heroic adventures of the spiritual life. " Both, find their different mate* and merry, being variously affected by the passionate love they feel for their mates and their sexless love for each other. Among the budget of interesting articles which are always to be found in "Chambers's Journal," the September number contains an account of"» visit to the mandated territory of SouthWest Africa. From this we gather'that in seven short years—from 1904 to 1011 —the Germans reduced the aboriginal population from 130,000 to 38,000. The Hanging House was the scene of gruesome week-end spectacles. To a bleak, wind-swept island in the B,ay of Luderitzbucht men, women and children, captives in the Herero war, were taken and left to die. Evidences of German thoroughness exist in the construction of railways, hotels, and military barracks. Flogging was applied indiscriminately by employers of black labour. Since the administration of the country has been taken over by the Union Government of South Africa six thousand five hundred Germans have been repatriated. Those who re. Jim have adapted themselves to the new conditions, which guarantee humane treatment. The Government is carried on without any military force. "The Fabric of Europe," by Harold Stannard, MA. (Collins, per Whitcpmbe and Tombs), reviews historically the conditions prevailing in Europe which culminated in war, and then examines critically the attempts that iiave since been made to provide safeguards against) such a catastrophe in the future. The<*utlior shews that the spirit of nationalism has always been striving for expression and that, in Eastern Europe especially, this formed a disturbing "element which is now more actively operative. He attributes the failure of the Treaty of Versailles mainly to the withdrawal of the United States, and says: "The Supreme Council has failed because it wad divided, the League of Nations because it was weak, and the European Congress because it was circumscribed. These successive failures have opened the way for piecemeal treatment, from the now manifest dangers of which Europe can alone be saved by its collective consciousness." National aspirations, which were latent before the war, have become active and aggressive, and the League of Nations provides the only safety for democracy. Without such an organisation the ideas which have evoked this clash of national aspirations would result in ''A world of jealousies blazing up into perpetual conflicts." Bolshevism has introduced another revolutionary element which has become a menace to America as serious a-e to Europe, and demanding a combination of stable democratic forces to cope with it. Mr. Michael Farbman, a recognised authority on revolutionary Russia, has reviewed the present social and industrial condition of that country in his book "Bolshevism in Retreat," (Collins, per Whitcombe and Tombs). Mr. Farbman gives a history of the revolution, and the circumstances which brought Lenin and Trotsky into power. • Lenin, he describes as one of the most complex characters alive. He shews that the revolution was, in it's most essential character, agrarian, and that out of the chaos that followed the destruction of the old order a new Russia has emerged. "The repudiation of the Communist economics and the adoption of the so-called New Economic Policy brought with it also the reversal of the financial policy. The persistent attempt made by the Bolsheviks diiring the last four years to 'abolish money' l»y inflating it out of existence, has now been replaced by a solemn promise on their part to 'sanitate' their finances, to strengthen the purchasing power of the rouble, and to : invigorate the Russian valuta, They hope to redeem it by establishing a 1 fixed budget, by practising strict economy in State expenditure, by introducing the principle of payment' for all services rendered by the State (post, telegraph, railways, etc.), by re-estab-lishing direct and indirect taxation, and by transferring most industrial and commercial undertakings to private management"

Mrs. Garnett has placed lovers of Russian literature under a further debt by her translation of a series of short 6tories and sketches by Nicolay Gogol, author of "Dead Souls." These virile pictures of life in Russia ninety years ago shew the author at his beet. The volume includes seven sketches, "The Overcoat," "The Carriage," "The Nevsky Prospect," "The Madman's Diary," "The Prisoner, , ' "The Nose, J, and "The Portrait." Messrs. Chatto and Windus are the publishers. A book, written by the Russian musician Goldenveizer, consists, of notes of Tolstoy's conversation made over a period of fourteen years towards the end of his life. M. Goldenveiier describes Tolstoy's astonishing physical power: running neck-and-neck with a young man for the best part of a mile at sixty-eight and training a hors,e, when he was over seventy, like a perfect horseman. Stanley Paul and Co. will publish immediately "Madame Vestris and Her Times, , ' by Charles B. Pearce. Lucia Elizabetta Vestris was one of the most fascinating figures that ever graced the English stage. Her grandfather was the celebrated engraver, Bartolozzi. She made her name in Italian opera, in the English ballad play, and as the originator of brilliant extravaganzas, which drew all London. She was the first woman manager of a theatre. Her love affairs were numberless, and an inexhaustible subject for scandalous invention*. Anottter volume of delightful sketches by May Qibbs, illustrating a scries of tales for the little folk, and dealing with animal life in Australia, has been published by Osboldstone and Co., Melbourne. It is entitled "Nuttybub, and Nittersing," and is dedicated to "all dear little children and to their kind mothers and fathers." Nuttybub, a gumnut baby, falls from the window of hi£ father's house, high up in a big gum tree, and lands in a bird's nest. This is the prer hide to various adventures in which Mr. Lizard, Mr. Shag, Mrs. Kangaroo, and other denizens of the woodlands take part. All are quaintly illustrated in the artist's picturesque style. Our copy from Robertson and Mullens, Elizabeth Street, Melbourne. * HUMAN AUSTRALASIA. 6EEN THROUGH AMERICAN EYES. LABOUR A FAILURE. The prayer of Robert Burns for power to »cc ourselves through. other people's eyes, has been granted in "Human Australasia," by Charles F. Thwing (Macmillan). The author is President of the Western Reserve University, and he endeavours in this book to "consider Australia and New Zealand as a human condition. His conclusions are based on an extended visit to Britain's Southern Dominions, during- which he talked with many leading men in Government circles and in the fields of education, literature and labour. With the determination to populate these lands exclusively with a white race, the author is in sympathy, but he favours the admission of a limited number of Asiatics into the tropical territories of Australia and even into New! Zealand. He believes that mankind may ultimately be improved by a mixture of races. ' A large space tn the book is devoted to the attempts that have been made to solve industrial problems by legislative measures. The results, he says, have been disappointing. New Zealand, which was described by Henry Demarest Lloyd as "a country without strikes," might more appropriately be called "a land shot through through with strikes." He also states that Labour Governments in Australia have proved equally impotent to find a solution for industrial unrest. Hope for a satisfactory adjustment of the conflict between the interests of employer and employee, Mr. Thwing believes, lies in education and development of human feeling on both sidee. The employer should regard the employee as a human being and not a, machine, and should receive a similar respect and consideration from the employee. He specially condemns the system of limitation of output and the process of levelling down rather than levelling up, which he found a dominating creed of unionism. "Such a method is against the good of humanity," and represents "a bad economic law." "The impression prevailing among unions that lessened work by one member means more work for a greater number of members is false as an economic notion." " Mr. Thwing declares that a Labouri Government would be impossible in America because ? 'the domination of a representative* government by one class of citizens is neither representative nor democratic, and the American community would not eifdure such oligarchic usurpation." A considerable space in the book Is devoted to a review 'of the education systems of Australia and New Zealand, ol which" he formed a high opinion. With regard to the universities, he observes that, while at least one half and from some eeventy-nve- per cent of American students go into business, nearly all the graduates from colle<res in Australasia enter professions. The training given for law, tho teaching profession and . engineering, is very thorough. "The engineers of Australia, like those of Christchurch, in New Zealand, are among the best'trained of all the graduates of Australian universities. They are found in all parts of the world, and especially in Java, South America and China." INDIFFERENCE TO RFXIOION. Mr. Thwing found indifference to religion and materialism widespread in these Dominions. "The people of Australasia," he says, "do not feel the need of religion, and, therefore, cease to care for it, and neglect to attend to the peculiar dutiee of its institutions. Their thoughts, are rather absorbed in getting and spending. Their emotions relate largely to business or professional success. This," ho states, "is a characteristic common to new countries. It is a fact to be deplored, because of the in? jury which the community suffers from a loss of the influence which religion exercises on the moral conduct of the people." Hβ condemns the wide prevalence of gambling and says that "the chief or the only force which will elevate the people to the understanding of the viciousness of the whole scheme, and which will cure it, as far as any force will cure it, ie education." With regard to the general standard of law and order, the author states: "The contrast between the law and order of Australia and Now Zealand and the lawlessness and disorderliness of the United States is highly favourable to the newest England of the Southern Seas. Lynchings are unknown. . The respect for law as an atmosphere. The respect for law as a body of statutes, is more akin to that obtaining in England than in America. One cause of this prevailing respect ia the dominance of the English traditions."