SOMBRE NOVEL OF WEST COAST

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30146, 1 June 1963, Page 3

SOMBRE NOVEL OF WEST COAST

(Reviewed

by

R.S.L.]

Coal Flat. By Bill Pearson. Paul’s Book Arcade. 421 PP.

This long, sombre novel gives a microcosmic picture of a West Coast mining township in the years immediately after World War 11. The setting is authentic; the detailed descriptions of the town, the pub, the school, the gold dredge, and the coal mine are faithfully drawn; the physical lives of the inhabitants are true to life —in all these aspects, the novel is an excellent documentary. Mr Pearson explores the life of the township in breadth, and the pablican and his family, the school teachers and pupils in depth, but he fails for the most part to make the characters come to life.

The themes on which the action in the novel are based are credible and plainly presented in good prose, and the outcome of events logical. But the story becomes dreary in parts, mainly because of the author’s apparent determination to present facts without allowing himself to take sides.

This tendency by the author to write without becoming involved, in a laudable effort to present the Coast as it is and not as it is in popular legend, prevents the reader from becoming in-' volved. An equally serious criticism of the book as a true picture of life in a mining township in the Grey Valley is its lack of humour. Places on the Coast may be dying, or dead (even more so now than in the period of the novel) but the gusto, vitality and humour of miners and their families in the Coast townships are still very much alive The central character of the book is a young school teacher returning to Coal Flat from the war. He went to the war after first being a conscientious objector. He sides with the union over the “beer strike” after first being against it. He is at odds with the publican and family over this.

He again earns the community’s opprobrium when

he is accused by a boy pupil of indecent assault. He clears himself of this charge, conducting his own defence, before a judge and jury in Greymouth—the local constable lays the charge without help from detectives and apparently there was no lower court hearing.

The story of the West Coast unions’ declaring beer at 7d a glass “black” and the meet-

ing of the Licensed Victuallers Association in Greymouth which voted to put beer back to 6d is told much better. The seduction of a woman school teacher by the publican’s returned serviceman son is a painful incident; and her subsequent conversion to the Roman Catholic Church is also described in harsh terms.

The happiest part of the book describes a whitebaiting expedition to the Blue river area in South Westland, when the school teacher is running away from Coal Flat and its environment. The author’s compassionate interest in Maoris is very evident in this portion of the story. The dust cover design is by Colin McCahon —its starkness matches the story.