CHANGING SCENE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 247, 17 October 1936, Page 12

CHANGING SCENE.

DOMINION'S GLORIES. FINE PICTORIAL RECORD. BRETT'S CHRISTMAS NUMBER. Lakes, rivers, harbours, peaks and cities, in the changing moods of the seasons, in the warmth of early morning sunlight, in the flush of sunset, in mists and shadows—this is the way in which the glories of New Zealand have been captured by camera and pen in Brett's Christmas Number —the "Auckland Star" annual—which is to be published on Monday. Once again Christmas Number is from cover to cover fashioned by the finest art of photographer and printer. Tastefully arranged and matchlessly produced, it offers again a camera record with a trend away from the stereotyped. Thirty-six pages unfold. the serene loveliness and the awe-inspiring magnificence alike of the New Zealand scene. The glories of this land of ours we know well ourselves—or rather we know that they are there. We revel in them, not becatise wo are proud that Ihey are such as few other countries can blend into so small a space, but simply because they are there for us to know and to see. They are there for us to share, too, and that is why Brett's 1930 Christmas Number will be eagerly sought after as a Christmas gift for friends and relatives overseas. Caught in Colour. Prelude to the treasure store inside is a cover illustration in colour that arrests and yet seems to carry on the seaward flow of a noble river. The scene changes in the special loose supplement to a wild mountain valley on the frontiers of the fiordland of Otago. It is a true reproduction, again in colour, of a forceful painting by Nugent Welch, and in it the artist has caught the gush of steely blue snow water in the shadow of rugged mountains. Turn now to the annual proper, where a gentle Nelson stream "babbles on the pebbles" ill a picture so lovely that it brings with it the coolness of its waters and the gentle chatter of their wanderings; and then to Ruapehu, a kingly crown swelling rrom the liushlands of the Tongariro National Park; to Hamilton's Waikato, to Dunedin's beaches and to the kaurilands of the North. A double-page feature has the untrammelled beauty of the road to Cape C°l" ville as its subject. In soft sepias, greens and greenblacks the varied panorama spreads— and then in a sudden burst two rich harmonics in full colour are unfolded. In one of these the sun glints, on a tearing alpine stream that drops from snowclad ranges in the background. The other is a river scene less turbulent, rippling waters running out on the shores of the Hauraki Gulf at Orere. Two more visions such as these arc caught in living colour. A new motor road which, connecting with famous Milford in the South Island, will become probably the finest . drive in the Dominion, winds up the Hollyford Canyon, whose walls arc towering, snowclad crags. Majestic serenity such as this turns to a quieter calm in the last of these matchless reproductions. In this, crimson pohutukawas hang over the sea on a brilliant summer day at Orere, east of Auckland.

Story and Picture. Sea and sky and rugged ocean coast pass in vivid review, features include " Walking in Wonderland," pictures and story of the four main ways to get to magic Milford Sound, and more particularly of those ways which are most exhilarating. Exploration of new country in the great alpine barrier of the South is told also In story and picture. "River and Crag: Waikato's Swift Waters" is another special article, by James Cowan. Apart from these beautiful studies and their fine presentation, the Christmas Number has its complement of examples of the art of advertising, and national and international concerns tell of their products and services in attractive pages. The annual will be on sale at 2/ per copy. Postage is Id to all British possessions and 4d to America, Europe, Asia and Africa.