EARLY VISITORS

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26261, 4 November 1950, Page 3

EARLY VISITORS

I Reviewed by H.L G 1 wild iff/ c^ e t W Ze ? land history and of fiv/ iamou?‘ n „ S L? 1 | Ogra Phical studies New 7e»f^a U3 K ? eople wi, o came to Th/ftr.o ~ d r„ btt i vee , n 1769 a nd 1835. Eank. / oseph u (later Sir Joseph) & ftJa""? botanist and presiwith Pani?)J 5 n yai .' So’nety. who sailed £ I’® . Cook u on the Endeavour "Island'" n , whos « honour Banks The rem.? . d B ? tany Bay were named. TMiTn^a 1 nin ß famous visitors to New n,v?2?J’ d ,? escr, bed in this book are all P«nlV^h C rl tUry literary fi ß ures - O'’ i literary connexions. First, KeaG “rt." 1 " ? r ° Wn ’ thS friend of W?.h ’.a ho Y /ent on walking tours him h s^ared lodgings with Probably introduced him to h . nny Brawne, claimed to have rescued 1° a Nightingale" from of h?. Vi n nurse s o™ through part th. a ?u St ‘l ! nj; ss - Several years after the death of Keats, Brown emigrated on an impulse to New Plymouth. But Ina K €W a- I j e . wa ? llttle t 0 his taste ? nd ... dJ ? d ln New Zealand within a matter of month, and was buried on Marsland Hill. His son became Superintendent of Taranaki, had a distinguished military career, and was a member of the House of Representatives. The next literary visitor whose career and visit to New Zealand Mona Gordon outlines is Anthony Trollope, who came to the Antipodes to visit hisson Fred, an Australian fanner, and wrote an account of his travels in his 'Australia and New Zealand," which is not a very good book. Among other things, we learn that Trollope was a schoolfellow of John Robert Godley at Harrow. After Trollope, comes John Coleridge Patterson, the martyr bishop, whose main literary connexion was that of being a nephew of S. T. Coleridge. Through Bishop Selwyn he was also connected with literature in the person of Charlotte Yonge, who delighted in donating the proceeds of her many successful novels to missionary funds in New Zealand and, in particular, to the erection of St. Andrew’s College at Kohimarama. Last among Mona Gordon's literary visitors to New Zealand comes the distinguished historian. J. A. Froude, who was a friend of Sir George Grey. He spent a holiday in New Zealand in 1835 and wrote a book "Oceana" about his travels, a much better book than Trollope s. All these people and many more are crowded Into this interesting book. Its only delect is its style. Mona Gordon’s manner is gushing, effusive, and sentimental. It can best be conveyed by quotation. Here is one describing Joseph Banks’, departure for New Zealand: “A summer day in England and the last of England’s summers they will see for three long years. Goodbye Sarah Sophia! Farewell

Revesby!—young Joseph is off on the adventure of hi, life." iThe last paragraph in the book describing the death of Froude (whom she coyly nicknames “Anthony AdverM") is another typical specimen of the writing: "But the tide was on the ebb for Anthony Froude and it ebbed very swiftly, so that when the University assembled that October to begin again its age-old course the students learned that their Regius Professor would not be among them because autumn had blown out the flickering candle which had, for a season, shone among them with the brilliance of a star.”

A further objection to this book is that Mona Gordon 1, often superficial in her passing comment, on literary people (particularly Byron) and she is inclined to sing the praises of her chosen subjects In such sympathetic terms that the reader is unable to gain a balanced idea of the personality she is trying to bring to life. A little more detachment, Mipitly wider reading in the period of English literature, a little more restraint in the manner of writing, and this would have been a really good book.