OUR BEAUTIFUL LAND.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20678, 15 October 1932, Page 14

OUR BEAUTIFUL LAND.

CAMERA MASTERPIECES REPRODUCED. "NEW ZEALAND ILLUSTRATED." j i i This year's number of ".New Zealand ■lllustrated/' published by tlie Christchurch Press Company. 'Li mi led, reaches a level of artistic and technical perfection Hint is unprecedented, fiue though previous numbers of this popular annual have been. Prom its attractive outside cover—■a. colourful Alpine scene—right to the last page, ''New Zealand Illustrated" is a fascinating production. .If contains a tine presentation plate in colour — "Btacl;s at Ashley Downs, North Canterbury ,'' by Mr A. F. iNicoll, winner of the Hindis 100 Medal for landscape painting, who has contributed to .\cw Zealand art some of Ihe most notable works, boih in porl rail lire and landscape, that it possesses. "Stacks at Ashley Downs" is a picture truly revealing Ihe artist's great, .ability,"' nnd combines warmth and colour and iicauty in a striking May. The printing is beautifully done, and ihe plate is admirably suited for framing. Triumph of Printer's Art. This year's number is not onlv a triumph of the printer's arl. It is also a striking illustration of the amazing advance made year by year in the development of photography, which now preserves to us in permanent form not only the things of nature which change only into different moods of beauty—the limpid glories of our lakes or the dazzling majesty of alpine snows -but also those which, like clouds or a rich sunset, pass swiftly away, and are never again seen in quite, Iho same form. The photographs reproduced arc of the highest merit, us would be expected when if is known that the foremost, photographers of the Dominion participated in the production. .As page after page is turned, disclosing glimpses of rare and wonderful beauty- ■ lakes and rivers, rugged mountains,' peaks crowned with snow, glaciers, road and roast and city scenes--each reveals more clearly than ever what a lovely land 1110 .New Zealandcr lives in. "New Zealand Illustrated'' is of particular interest tl , reader- of Tnrc Pp.kss, inasmuch ;, s tin, beau lies of the South Island an: given particular attention. A notable fen hi re of Ihe product ion is that the illustrations include two dno-toncs. a process of combination printing which enhances the photographic, values by means of tints which tone in with the subject. These pictures-are "Countryside I'nder Know at: Cass'' (Green and Jlalni), "Sheep Droving Near Kaikoura" (Green and ILihm. Notable Photographs. Other notable photographs arc "The Surf Cirl" ((1. Chance): "Ice Formations on the Pox (ilacier" (L. A. fusksten; "L'nrly 'Morning in the Harvest Field" (G. Chance,): "At the Head of (ilendhu Pay, Lake Wanaka" (G, Chance); "Cabbage. Trees at Lake liiiwca" (G. Chance;; "Mount liouen and the Pembroke (ilacier" (P. C. Ilazeldine); and "Pancake Hocks ut Puaakaiki" (A. It. Kingsfunl).

There are also some excellent views of Christehurch and its immediate surroundings, including "Codley Head Lighthouse, Lyttelton'' (YV. \\"! Dunsterville); "By Ihc Lake in the Christchurch Botanic Gardens" (G. P. bannering); "Daffodil Day at Otahuna, Tai Tapu'' and "Spring I'dossoms on the Banks of the Avon" (F. U. Lamb); "Victoria Lake, Hagley Park" (P. T{. Lamb'i; "Governor's Bav anil the Port Hills" (P. J;. Lamb);'and "Lyttelton Harbour from the Sign of the Kiwi'' (Green and ilahn). All of the photographs reproduced are of such high quality that it. is difficult to single out. any of them for special mention. It is enough to say that all of them help in making "New Zealand. Illustrated" truly a thing of beauty and a triumph of pictorial art.