IDEAL ANNUAL.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 249, 20 October 1928, Page 10

IDEAL ANNUAL.

BRETT'S CHRISTMAS NUMBER.

SOME-FZHE COLOUR WORK.

GEMS OF NEW ZEALAND SCENERY.

"It is always a marvel to me how they manage to turn out'something so distinctive and new every year," said a good-, judge when, he s saw this year's Christmas Number." It certainly is a 'splendid production. New Zealand has been. so well photographed that one might think there' was nothing; left - to snap, but a glanee through the 68 pages of the "Annual" shows that the "Star" still knows where to find something novel. Our really beautiful scenery, so varied and so distinctive, is well illustrated with picturesque photographs reproduced in the style for which the office has a unique record. A feature this year 1 is an article called "An Oceanic Empire," by James Cowan, with s<£ne

very charming illustrations from New Zealand's South Sea atolls and islands, and a double page of Samoan beauties, both scenic and human, makes an effective contrast to the.other pages, showing how wide an area the Dominion .has to administer. Gems of New Zealand scenery, farming scenes, life among the Maoris, glimpses of our big cities, and examples of our comfortable colonial homes make up a portfolio of pictures which will be specially attractive to friends abroad, who are always delighted to receive a copy of this uncommon New Zealand production as a Christmas gift. There is some splendid colour work this year, from the attractive cover with its life-like seagull hovering over a surfbeaten coast, to the very striking advertisements in colour, of which there are several pages. The presentation plate this year is a charming river scene in the Urewera. Other colour pages include a typical scene on the Auckland waterfront, some scenes in Melanesia, in which New Zealand has always taken a deep interest on account of the Melanesian Mission, and a famous Weßt Coast forest road, which is essentially New Zealand, and could not have been pictured anywhere else.

Either as a souvenir to keep in the home or to post away to friends t.hia year | "Brett's Christmas Number" is