A COLLECTION FROM AUSTRALIA

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29070, 5 December 1959, Page 3

A COLLECTION FROM AUSTRALIA

Summer Glare. By Gerald Hamilton. Ure Smith. 256 pp. The Big Smoke. By D’Arcy Niland. Angus and Robertson. 224 pp. Jimmy Brockett. By Dal Stivens. Angus and Robertson. 257 pp. Evening Under Lamplight. By David Campbell. Angus and Robertson. 11l pp. Fear Drive My Feet. By Peter Ryan. Angus and Robertson. 251 pp. Speak You So Gently. By Kylie Tennant. Gollancz. 224 pp. Medicine Man. By F. B. McCann. Angus and Robertson. 208 pp. The Drum. By Sidney J. Baker. Currawong Publishing Company. 158 pp. The Tin Scratchers. By lon L. Idriess. Angus and Robertson. 260 pp. An Introduction to the Australian Federal Parliament. Angus and Robertson. 198 pp.

Something should be said first of all about the format of these books from Australia. Publishers across the Tasman are apparently developing a tradition of their own; for in appearance their books differ slightly from those produced in Great Britain or the United States. The page is a trifle taller and narrower for one thing; the type is generally a shade smaller, and the binding is extremely neat. In fact it would be hard to find more attractive looking books anywhere.

The first novel, “Summer Glare,” tells a tragic embittered story of young people growing up among the New England hills in a township where life is simple, indeed almost primitive. Pretty obviously Mr Hamilton has himself lived in surroundings of this kind; for the impressions he gives of rural New South Wales are at times overpowering. To begin with, Ken Collins’s love affair with “Dookie,” develops with an artless frankness not without its charm. At once it puts an indelible mark on Ken, and as a young man he can take no interest in anyone else. Almost from the beginning, however, it is obvious that no happy conclusion is possible, and the climax Mr Hamilton contrives may best be - described as cruel. Nevertheless “Summer Glare” is an original and powerful novel.

As might be gathered from the title, it is Sydney, the great coldhearted city, that D’Arcy Niland is really writing about in “The Big Smoke.” The characters he introduces are numerous, and as their stories unfold they meet or cross briefly, tiny but significant figures in the crowded city streets.

Mr Niland suggests that everyone, as he scurries back and forth, is part of the life of someone else, and accordingly the pattern in “The Big Smoke” is an intricate one. It is easy to see what the author * finds so fascinating about Sydney and its population, and the story is one to ponder long after the book has been closed.

“Jimmy Brockett” is another novel with Sydney as the background; but this time the leading figure dominates the setting. Here is a boldly-written study of 30 years in the life of an accomplished scoundrel. Mr Stivens summons his hero out of the underworld just at the time when the larrikin gangs, or “pushes,” had not long had their day. The book reveals the author’s wonderful sense of period; the Australia of the years before 1914 appears before the reader with much of its elemental rawness and strength. This in itself would be no mean achievement; but in Brockett, who rises from boxing promoter to millionaire philanthropist and politician, Mr Stivens has created something unique.

“Evening Under Lamplight” is quite different from any of the books mentioned above. It is a series of closely-connected tales about a childhood passed on a great sheep station presumably in New South Wales. Mr Campbell’s characteristic quality is his sensitive feeling for the thoughts that spring from time long past. This gives his work a tone which sets it apart from “Summer Glare” or “The Big Smoke.” In fact “Evening Under Lamplight” has something of the gentler spirit that informs many of the New Zealand novels based on childhood.

The next book, “Fear Drive My Feet,” is not a novel. The author claims “that the work is entirely factual.” He writes of operations undertaken against the Japanese in New Guinea in 1942 and 1943. a part of the history of the war that few not actively engaged there know much about. There is nothing spectacular or grandiose to record, because only a handful of troops could be spared to withstand the enemy in that sector. All that could be done was constant patrolling, which meant being alone, without sight of another white man perhaps for months on end. The jungle was almost impenetrable, and then there was the constant danger of meeting the Japanese, who were also on the move the whole time. Mr Ryan tells a grim story of endurance and courage.

Miss Tennant’s book is published in England by the firm of Gollancz, but it is entirely taken up with Australia. “Speak You

So Gently” describes a peacetime journey made through country perhaps a little less difficult than what Peter Ryan had to contend with in New Guinea. Miss Tennant accompanied the Rev. Alfred Clint when he went to organise the co-operatives established among the natives in the Torres Strait area by the Australian Board of Missions. Ultimately the author found herself at the Lockhart River Mission on the tip of Cape York Peninsula. This outpost of the Anglican Church is affectionately described. She found there a handful of white people working themselves to the bone in almost hopeless conditions to help the aborigines “to establish their economy and their whole way of life on a j®und and healthy basis.” She was fond df the natives and spent some time teaching them in school. She also travelled widely, and she describes her adventures without undue seriousness. It comes as something of a surprise to learn that the type of devotion taken for granted, say, in the church of St. Alban the Martyr, Holborn, is also characteristic of the dioceses of Queensland and New Guinea. “The natives of New Guinea like incense, also candles and copes.” A different account of life in the far north is given by Dr. McCann. He writes from the point of view of a physician, although he has long since given up his practice because of ill health. Tn spite of this he is the most cheerful of men. and after reading “Medicine Man” it mieht be thought that he needed all his high spirits to_deal with conditions 30 years ago. “before the bitumen.” This is an agreeable book of a fairly familiar kind. If it does not go very deeply into life's problems, on the other hand it is full of good stories that nearly everyone would enjoy.

“The Drum” reflects the current Australian craze for selfexamination. The arrangement of the book is puzzling; Mr Baker is an authority on the Australian language, and the second half of “The Drum” is a dictionary of Australian slang. Incidentally, “the drum” is defined as “the true facts, sound advice, a valuable tip. Esp. give someone the drum. Also v. to drum, to inform, to advise, to exnlain the correct facts.” He prefaces this part of his book with a series of chanters on various Australian characteristics that have struck him. Here he traverses a well-travelled pa*h and does tend to leave the impression that “although we are hospitable outdoor types, we live in what is tantamount to a cultural concentration camp.” Thes« words are the author’s own. No collection of Australian books could be complete without something from the pen of the indefatigible lon L. Idriess. On this occasion tie is represented bv “The Tin Scratchers,” which seems to bring his total output of books on exploration and adventure up to 37. As a mere boy 50 years ago he ventured into the wilderness of Cane York Peninsula in search of gold. To his surprise be found himself in no time toiling with pick and shovel in the tin fields. His nickname. Cyclone Jack, reflected the amused irony with which he was regarded by the majority of the .population. Nevertheless he did well out of tin. and more important still he added to that of memories which seems inexhaustible. “The Tin Scratchers” is discursive and loosely written; but the frontier atmosphere of Queensland long ago will remain with the attentive reader. The “Introduction to the Australian Parliament” is a handbook that gives a host of facts about the Parliament at Canberra. Its constitutional development is described. its procedures are outlined, end there are lists of members of both Houses. The book was prenared under instructions of the President of the Senate to coincide with the recent Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference at Canberra. No doubt it proved as valuable to delegates to that conference as it will to visitors to Canberra and to others interested in the Australian Parliament