NEW BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 12593, 8 September 1906, Page 7

NEW BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS.

For a manly story of hard knocks and interrupted love, told in good, forceful language, if without magic, the reader may be commended to ""l-fie Arrow of the North," an historical novel by R. H. Forstor. The time is the reigns of Henry VII. and VIII., from Perkin Warbeck s rebellion till the batt-k) of Flodden,; the scene is tho debatable land between England and Scotland, and whea we are given an English lad in love with a Scotch latsie there is certainty of a rough current to their true love's tide. Border forays and castlo assaults, and a spirited description, of Flodden Field, provide tho martial excitement ot the story, while the machinations of the hero 3 base rival in love, and. the stratagem by which, like young Loehinvar, he plucks away his eweuiiheart from this rival's possession on tho very eve of their marriage, must thrill all but very eluggish blood. (London: mair's Colonial Library. Christehm .i : Mesons Whitcombe and Tombs; 2o iki and 3s Gd).

Fresh as the Suffolk cowslips and primroses which seem to dwell upon her "inward cv« is the sweet idyfl of English farm life in. early Victorian days winch Mies Betham-Eiwards gives Us in "Martha Rose. Teacher.'' The shy village teacher aixl licr lover, the plain young farmer, Clem Fison, fea.rnil of offending by a lowly marriage his elder brother who aspires to "parlez vous" and, as one of the new class of gentlemen, farmers, marry one ct the simpering ''board school misses" who aro so well described, take cl-se hold of the reader's sympathies from the first. Heal inspiration, also, has gone to the .making of old blind Rose, the teacher's unde, fish-salesman, aiid Methodist preacher, than whom 'there wasn't such a speller in all Burridge, nor such a hand at puitin' together or expoundin' eithor." Xor is the despised Sam Weed-on, not hopeless of a wife, though in his fit ice, and noted as a 'cheese-nip,"' or niggard, lees skilfully depicted. Jt is Sam who copes to Miss Rose's defence when, her weakwilled lover Resorts her, and shows heroic magnanimity in an unpromising mouM. The irato rector, the Rev. Mr Pa.g!ar. his peremptory kdy and sweetspirited daughter, and the important Mrs Cribb, who kee-ps two -genteel' , nieces and her meek sister-hi-law in their places because she. has money to bequeath, are characters we know nnd see, as, in fact, are all the others. And the story moves between sweetscented Suffolk hedgerows, by Uio side of tho stono - picking gang, in, wheat and turnip fields and humble farmhouse "keeping-roome." Its perusal is the next best thing to a day in the country. (London: Long's Colonial Library. Christ church : Messrs Whitcombo and Tombs; 2s 6d and 3s Gd.)

The 'Commercial Handbook of Canada,' , edited by Ernest Heaton, gives in a bawdy farm a quantity of information about the great Dominion, ami should prove especially useful to nierchante, mnniilaetuircTS and others seeking to ope-n up trade with Canada. How important the market there is considered may lye gathered from the fact that thero arc in the- Dominion three liundnxl and seventy-two consular and commercial agents, representimg foreign countries. The United , States, we are told, has 189 representatives, Germany IG, Frunce 15, Brazil 14, Belgium, Italy and Portugal 10 each, Norway and' Sweden together \o, Greece, Columbia, Haiti, and Nicaragua one each. After this, will it be believed that neither Great Britain, India nor any British colony has a single trade representative im the country? Yet such, we are assured, is the fact, although it is stated that tho British Government has got so far as to state in reply to a question in tho House of Commons, that the matter of being represented is under consideration. (Toronto: Hea ton's Agency.)

"The Early History of the New Zealand' Post Office/ compiled by D. Roberteoujt is not only interesting in itself, but affords a vecy striking illustration of the rapid progress niadie by tho colony. The first traeo of anything bearing on the subject of a post office in Kmv Zealand, which Mr Robertson has been able to discover, is a statement made by Mr Powd.itoh that in 1831 he. being a personal friend of the Post-master-General of New South Wales, was commissioned to receive and make up mails on 'his behalf at the Bay of Islands. In 1834 Mr W. Colenso -had a ve-ry painful 'experience of euch primitive pce.tal arra-ivg-sments as then existed. A friend cf hie died, and Mr Oolenso out off his hair ami made up two big letter parcels including papers of value with the deceased gentlomaai's hair, seals and other relics. One lie addressed, to India and another to England to brothers of the deceased. He- delivered them personally to the postmaster at Korareka, but finding neither of them reached their destinations he made enquiries and found tnat the precious postmaster had} burned tho letter and appropriated the postage. That was a little over seventy years ago, awd now wo find New Zealand leading tho way wjth universal penny postage, and honoured with separate representatioiv at the Postal Union Congress. Mr Robertson is to bo congratulated on having produced a book which, besides being an interesting contribution to the history of the colony, is ontertaiming to read. (Wellington : JoJra Mackay, Government Printer.)

The following sixpenny editions are to hand f.rom Mr Fountain Barber:— "M6na Maclean, Medical Student,"' by Graham Travere (Edinburgh and London : William Blackwood and Sons); "T)avid Elginbrod,' , by George Macdonald, LL.D. (London.: Hurst and. Blackett, Ltd., 182, High Holborn); 'Tearl Maiden," by H. Rider Haggard (London: G. Newnes, Ltdi.); ' Sarita the Carliet," Toy A. W. Marc-h----mont (London: Hutcbinson and Co.); "A King and a Few Dukes," by R. W. Chambers (London: Greening nrd Co.. Ltd.): 'When. Lore Flies Out o' the Window," by Leonard Merrick (London: C. Arthur Pearson, Ltd.); "The Kingdom of Mammon." by Violet Tweed'tlale (London: John Long); "Phyllis," by Mrs Hiingerford 1 (London :G. Nownra, Ltd.); "The Bird of Fate." by Alexandra Dumas (London: Metlnuon* and Co.'; and "The Marble City," by G. B. Burgin (London.: Hutohesan and Co.).