Compendium

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33253, 16 June 1973, Page 10

Compendium

“The First New Zealand Whole Earth Catalogue” (Alister Taylor Publishing Company, 256 pp.) grows, like its American counterpart and forebear, “The Last American Whole Earth Catalog,” out of a widespread desire, particularly amongst the young, to live more self-sufficiently and less wastefully. Page Three of the catalogue features a cartoon attack on the horrors of rampant consumerdom which the compilers would have us eschew. Just occasionally the catalogue itself has the air of mail-order advertising about it, but for different reasons. Praising a certain kind of saw or extolling the virtues of trickle irrigation, the compilers are merely supplying the information necessary for the reader to liberate ..himself, to some extent at least, from the world of frenzied consumption. If you want to build an adobe house, trap eels, grow pecan nuts or breast-feed your baby, and want clear, concise and uncommercial advice, this is the book. A veritable mine of information, it would be well worth placing in the hands of the short as well as the longhaired, the middle-aged as well as the young. It is not just a counter-culture gimmick, but a valuable compendium. The compilers announce a new edition for 1973. Those who contemplate buying it will be pleased to note that this first edition is printed on suitably biodegradable paper. Cast on to the compost heap in imitation of the salesman’s ideal, it will rot most satisfactorily, in fulfilment of the ecologist’s ideal. 4,.