NEW ZEALAND WOMEN WRITERS.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 448, 5 March 1909, Page 3

NEW ZEALAND WOMEN WRITERS.

One hardly realises how fow women writers there have been in New Zealand until' ono sees some'valiant attempt to make a magazine article about them. The latest number of "Cassell's Magazine" contains an article by C. Hay Thomson, ,w;ho has only been able to find ten who are important enough to deserve separate paragraphs, and these are nearly all. writers of ..poetry. During the course, of: the articlo .several complote poems are quoted. It seems a-pity that a poem on an Australian,'subject-has been chosen to represent Miss-Richmond's work. The 'first woman's book to bo printed in New Zealand was "Gabrielle, and Other PoemS," by Catherine Hi Richardson, issued j in 1875. 'An excerpt couched in Scottish dialect leads to the belief that the author was wife'or daughter .of one of the early OtagO emigrants. ■ Mrs. James Glenny Wilson (Anne Adams), is a native of Victoria, Australia, and "devoted to: her country," but on her marriage in 1874 she wont to New Zealand, and has since resided there, near a township'bearing the unroniantic liamo of "Bulls," some thirty miles South' of Wanganui. "Marriage was Mrs. Glenny. Wilson's inspiration, and verse sketches,: and short stories of hers appeared in tlib "Australasian" during the late 'seventies. Sho also met'with appreciation in the,' "Spectator," "Temple Bar," "Eclectic," atid "Cfentury." Her collected verso, under the title "Themes and Variations," was published in London in 1889. Two novels, "Alice Lauder" and "Two Summers," the fruit of a visit to the Old World, followed, and "A Book of Verses" from her pen appeared in 1901. These works had good treatment,from English miewers. ' Mrs. Wilson sings ;of home and motherhood, and paints the Maori landscape with graco and power.- In her gift of a certain luminous, lambent sarcasm she; lias no- New Zealand rival. ,

Miss Mary E. Riclin.ond is the daughter cf_ the late "Mr. Justice Richmond, for thirty-fiv9- years a ..distinguished member of tho New Zealand Siipreme'Court, and. niece of Sir Harry Atkinson tho Premier who pulled the countiy . through . its financial difficulties in the' late 'eighties. Miss Richmond was born in tho shadow of Mount Egmont, and when at home she lives in Wellington, "the windiest town on earth," irhero she has founded a' free kindergarten. She is a fine product of a "free, self-govern-ing democracy"; 'she.'goes straight to the root of matters..-Her belief is that "the primary school teacher is really the nationbuilder." Thus her chief interest is education, and for that she has travelled far and wide. .' , * ' ' . . The first woman to hold a position on the staff of any New. Zealand newspaper was Miss Dolce Cabot (Mrs. Duncan), daughter of one of the, Jersey Cabots, and lineally, descended from the Gcnocse j disqqyerer of the North American mainland. Born niici-brought up 'near Cjiristchu'rcli, Miss Cabot at ten years. .Q£„aKs,,could read, botii French'and Gerfflfl.it. '.In the .early 'nineties, when thewomen ..of ; Now Zealand, -weft; J agitating for tho franchise;' Miss Cabot, then'tin the middle' of her course for 8.A., wroto some powerful articles on tho subject, ■ with tlie result that she was invited to edit the "woman's pages" in the "Canterbury 'Times." This position she held from 1894 until her marriage in October, 1907. ' Outside her editorial work, Mrs. Durtcan has written short stories and Very pleasing -verse, but this is simply .a phase; it is her work for tho progress of women-that she regards with justifiable pride. i Miss Mary Colbornc-Vcel, the daughter of an Oxford magister artium and of a. lady who writes graceful fancies in smooth-flowing verso,-was, in common parlance, born with a pen in her hand.. Miss , Colborne-Veel's surroundings wero and are tho most literary that a now country can afford. . She began to ivrito early, and,. her work has appeared in many New Zealand papers, as 'well as in the ."At-lan-. tic "Longman's," "Atalanta," "Black..and White," and "Tho Author." "The Fairest of the Angels, and Other Verses" appeared in London in 1894. Tho death of her father in the following year led her to adopt.'-journalism as -a profession, her department being chiefly leaders on literary or general subjects. One of the most brilliant of tho band is Miss Editli Searlo (Mrs. Grossmann), who, though not a'poet,, is indeed something more than a journalist. Bopi in Victoria, sho spent her childhood , in the bush, with one year in Melbourne. Then , to; New .Zealand, whero.-later .sho' was ono of the. most .distinguished Women students Canterbury Col-lege-has every entertained. After taking her M.A. degree, she taught for'some time, and then ventured on the perilous sea as leader.

writer on; literary or historical, matters and Bocial movements. "At present she. is. settled in Xondon, and has had articles in "Tho Contemporary" and "Tho Nineteenth Century and .After;" Last year she pub-, lished her fourth book, "A Knight of.' the Holy Ghost." ' Miss Jessio Mackay, one of tho most dili: gent journalists of the Southern Isles, was born and grew up. on her father's station at tho foot orthe Southern Alps, although her name' implies that she comes of "a race of hardy Scotsmen. .One of her best poems, "A'Folk Song," has been described as "the finest poem that has' come' out of Now Zealand'." ' For the last eight or nine years Miss Mackay has been one of tho regular literary staff of tho "Otago 'Witness." 1 Miss' Dora Wilcox's dainty ' white booklet, "Verses from Maorilaud," appeared in' London so lately as 1905. Any of the two dozen pooms in her book might bo quoted, for Miss Wilcox's' lyre has many strings, arid sho has' plumbed the depths of human—especially women's—nature. Tho poctn entitled " displays, some of her best gifts—descriptive power, sympathetic recognition'of the .inevitable, and a'fine artistry of versification.' ' " 1 '