THE BOOKSHELF.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 88, 15 April 1933, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE BOOKSHELF.

NEWS AND REVIEWS.

SriTCI/AXR LEWIS' LATEST.

NOVELISTS AS CRITICS.

Humour is rare ill New Zealand letters. Our young writers are mostly busy with death, and frustration. Yet it is impossible to think of New Zealand life, even in these difficult days, as wholly grey. One should welcome an unpretentious booklet called "Advice to a Young Farmer by a Successful Man,"' written by "Aitchell," not because it is brilliantly amusing, but because it approaches rural life from a new angle, and in places is pleasantly diverting. The advice is in a series of chapters called "Making a Start," "Choosing the Place," "Buying the Car," "Testing," "Taking a Holiday," etc., and the flavour is agreeably ironical. The battle of cow breeds is described with a humorous fidelity that will be vouched for by inany. The remark that "a farmer wants to get married young, then he does not have to get share-milkers when he is old," throws a lot of light on rural economics. "Did you ever hear a Cocky making a fuss about walking? He Walks further in two daya than the entire Tramping Club does in the whole of its season; and all he does is to remark that he will soon have to be getting a new pair of boots." On inspectors the book is so interesting that one thinks there must be much more that could be written on this painful and amusing topic. If "Aitchell" could smooth away his crudities and go a little deeper into farm life he might write quite a notable book about the "Cocky" and his ways. "Advice to a Young Farmer", is printed in Paeroa, at the office of the "Hauraki Plains Gazette."