BELOVED NEW ZEALAND.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 224, 21 September 1929, Page 2 (Supplement)

BELOVED NEW ZEALAND.

MISS ELSIE MORTON'S NEW BOOK. One of the most encouraging of recent signs, in the local book world lias been the popularity of Miss Elsie K. Morton's "Along the Bond." This delightful bo9k of essays on New Zealand places lias gone into three editions. Encouraged by this, Miss Morton has now issued, through Wilson and Horton, Ltd., another similar book, "Joy of the Road." This time Miss Morton goes fut'ther afield, aiid gives us pleasant sketches of Australia. Here, among otlter things, she contrasts the preserved beauty of Sydney Harbour with the scars thai, commerce has made on the loveliness of the Waiteiuata. But, of course, the chief interest of "Joy of the Road" lies in the afl'cction for and understanding of New Zealand that is so well expressed. As in her first, book, Miss Morton sbows an unusual gift for describing both the natural and the human side of scenery, and for painting vivid little pictures of ordinary happenings. She looks at our lovely landscape with the eye of a poet and an artist, and captures the essential details. Small things as well as great interest her to the full, and she is able to convey their charm or pathos. Thus she is able to describe to us both the majesty of snow-clad mountains and the significance of olc» gardens in out-of-the-way places. She is, perhaps, at her best in describing the delights of a spot like Tapu, 011 the Thames-Coromandel Coast, where at dusk there floats through the an the rich fragrance of the trumpet lily, "banished a score of years ago from every modern garden." Her chapter on Kawhia, that quaint and beautiful off-the-track settlement, has. the same charm. Miss Morton goes to Ruapehu, the Hermitage, the Franz Josef, and Dunedin; this is a New Zealand, and •not merely an Auckland book. In the section "Of Many Things" she writes of ships and auctions, hymns and dentists, tea-kiosks, blackberry-picnicking, and the beauty that conies from rain," (The true eye for .natural beauty never fails to sse the magician in rain. "Why will an unseeing people persist in thinking of g r ey as a clingy, dull and depressing colour?") New Zealanders should be grateful for this book. We can easily imagine how the sights and scents of it would appeal to the New Zeaiauder abroad. It is excellently illustrated by plu)tographs. The picture of the interior of one of the tea houses on the Port Hills, Christchureli, should be noted in Auckland, where, in respect of this kind of building, there is mticb to learn.