THE GRANITES TRAGEDY.

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20860, 20 May 1933, Page 13

THE GRANITES TRAGEDY.

Tragedy Track: The Story of the ; Granites. By F. E. Baame. Frank C. Johnson. 180 pp. Mr Baume, a New Zealand journalist, now editor of the "Sunday Sun," Sydney, was commissioned by a group of Australian newspapers to go out to Central Australia and write the true story of the Granites, a goldfleld reputed to be enormously rich, which for a time caused extraordinary speculation in the stock markets. Mr Baume describes the tragedy of one of the most disillusioning gold rushes in the history of a hazardous calling. He saw the tragedy from the comparative comfort of a well- ! equipped expedition; but he has the imagination and the words to describe what he saw. His florid style, the product of years of association with evening and Sunday newspapers, lends itself peculiarly well to his purpose. He has an eye for the picturesque and a sense of I the pathetic, some humour, and ] considerable descriptive power. His exposure of the Granites fiasco is a journalistic feat; but the book will serve a more useful purpose by giving city Australians a deeper appreciation of the trials and difficulties under which those engaged in pioneering work in the hinterland are labouring.