LIBER'S NOTE BOOK.

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3173, 25 August 1917, Page 11

LIBER'S NOTE BOOK.

| Stray Leaves. A highly-important addition has been made to New Zealand literature in t'lo 6hape of a Maori-English Dictionary, edited by Herbert TV. Williams, M.A., and printed and published by the_ Government Printing Office. The work has been edited under the auspices of the Polynesian Society, and is based upon the dictionaries of TV. and TV. L. Williams. I hope to give an extended notice of this interesting and valuable publication next week, TVilliam J. Locke's new story is being published in the States previous to tho appearance of the English edition, a practice which is, I know not why. being followed by quite a number of English authors nowadays. The title is "The Bed Planet," and of course the publisher tells us, in his puff preliminary, that it is the best thing Locke has done since the now far-off days when he delighted the reading world with his "Beloved Vagabond." Though-it has the war for its background, the new story is a story of home life in a peaceful little English village, where dwell the fathers, mothers, wives and sweethearts of those who are "Somewhere in France." Mrs. Helene Cross's admirable littlo book, "Soldiers* Spoken French." is, I notice, brine republished in America, and is well spoken of by the reviewers, as, iiulocd, it deserves to be. The American "Bookman." long one of my favourites among American magazines, has recently, I notice, lost much of its old purely literary character. That excellent feature. ''Clironirnle p-v! Comment." does not appear, for instance, in the, July number, the majorityyjof tho articles in which are of a semi-poiitieal and social character. The illustrations also have beon reduced in number, and the whole magazine is in a very different form from what it used to bo Those who. like myself, make a point of never missing a book by that charming writer, Mr. E. V. Lucas, will spend o shilling on a little bwk by this author, entitled "Outposfs of Mercy," which doscribes what the author saw of the wof? of the British I?eel Cross Society on the Italian front. In his last volume of essays, "Clouds and Silver," Mr. Lucas, it may be remembered, had something to say of the fine work being done by the British Quaker's in France. In a new play by Marie C. Stopes, in which "the reconstruction of international relations after the war, with special regard to the future preservation of the peace," is tho motif, one of the scenes is laid on a New Zealand sheep farm. The title of tho play, which is in three acts, and publieelier by French, is "Conquest: or a Piece of .Tndo." The Right Hon. J. M. Robertson. M.P., well known as a good Shakespearean scholar, has recently published a book dealing with Shakespeare and Chapman. It is a thesis of Chapman's authorship of "A Lover's Complaint." and his origination of "Timon of Athens," with indication of further problems. A Mr. Cuthbert Scott has written & rather striking epitaph on Lord Kitchener:— He perished nobly in the wild sea lanes, Our fathers' highways, older than human ken; Imporishably great, his spirit remains Built in the lives of men. The "Saturday Eoview" recently fell foul of Mr. H. G. Wells apropos of the latter's advocacy of republicanism. There is a good deal of truth in what the "Keviler," as tho "S.R." was wont to be called in its younger days, says as to the chancos of Mr. Wells's literary work enduring for more than the presont genora-

tion. Mr. Wells is "a capital entertaining novelist, and a good second-hand Jules Verne. ... If Ins friends object to this description, let them rsk themselves : 'Is Jlr. Wells likely to endure as Anthony Trollops has endured!'' Now, Trollope, despito his delightful grit, his knowledge of tho world, his fine polish, is scarcely of tho first class of novelists—not with Scott, Thackeray, Dickens, fielding, Meredith, Hardy, George Eliot; anymore than are, say, Peacock and Mrs. Gaskell. But much rather than put Mr. Wells in with Trollope wo would put Trollope in with Scott and Thackeray. The truth is Mr. Wells is a bright, bustling wiiter, a clever 'seller' who 'goes.' Beyond this wo cannot honestly go. A paragraph or two from Hardy's 'A Pair of Bluo Lyes,' or from Meredith's 'Beauchamp's Career,' or 'Tho Egotist' arc more in our eyes than everything that Mr. Wells has ever written or ever can write." Sir. David Hannay has written u volume 011 President Diaz for Constable's "Makers of tho Nineteenth Century" series. In view of what has happened of recent years in Mexico, some reliable account of tho Diaz methods of government, which certainly were effective in preventing anarchy, should bo exceptionally interesting. H. G. Wells's new book. "God the Invisible King," an excursion into religious controversy, or, as ono critic has called it, "a theological sequel to 'Mr. trifling Sees It Through,'" is having a big sale, both in England and in America. So far no copies havo readied Now Zealand book shops. Por the first time we are to have Nelson's Last Diary, knoi?n also as Nelson's Private Journal, reprinted in its entirety. Mr. Elkin Mathews is to publish the new reprint. The original diary is preserved in tho Probato Registry at Somerset House, in London, and nothing bnt a slight crinkling of its limp lecther cover remains to show that it lay for many years rolled un with Nelson's will and other papers. The journal, which is edited, with an introducETon and votes, by Gilbert Hudson, extends from Friday, September 13, ISOS. when Nelson drove from "dear, dear Morton, where I loft all which I hold dear in this world, to pi to serve my King and country," to the followinj October 2t—' Trafalgar Day. The Teprint should bo well worth buying, especially by all who possess Captain Mahan's splendid "Life of Nelson," or even Southev's less ela.borato but still very readable biography.