A FULL LIFE RECALLED

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 220, 13 June 1936, Page 25

A FULL LIFE RECALLED

“Leaves from the Book of My Life," by Rev. Janies Milne, M.A. (Dunedin: “Otago Daily Times.” 1/-). In a gracefully written narrative the Rev. James Milne recalls the more outstanding incidents and influences in a full and well spent life. He reopens the book of his life at its first page, the scene a cottage in a little village near Aberdeen, and" meditatievly turns over the leaves, revealing the chief aspects of a fruitful career, until he comes to the last page as yet written which finds him divested of fear and doubt and clothed instead with spiritual hope for the future. The story begins with the inspiring discipline of his boyhood and, forsaking his father’s trade, his subsequent entry into the university at Aberdeen, where he took a degree in arts and then <q,cted upon the determinaitioiu which came to him to enrol at the Divinity Hall. His first work in the ministry was as an assistant in the mission of the church in Kenny’s Ward, a slum area of the city. Here he first formulated his opinions on the drink problem and began an advocacy of State control which he maintained throughout his active life. A call came to Narrandera, in New South Wales, and afterwards to the Chalmers Church, Sydney. Following a trip Home, Mr. Milne came to New Zealand, first to Oamaru and then to St. Andrew’s, Auckland, lie was not long iu New Zealand on this occasion, returning soon to England to Port, of Monteith aud On to the Caledonian Church in London. The health of two of his children, however, moved him to return to the Southern Hemisphere, and be accepted a call to St. James’s in Thames, where the .next 26 years of his life were spent and about which his later memories are mostly concerned. In the main, Mr. Milne has written a sober, reflective record, but not on that account by any means dull. His little book is full of good sense and good cheer, enlivened by warmth of feeling and made refreshing by a keen brain.

A New Zealand writer. Mr. Cecil 11. Winter, of Bluff, has been awarded first prize by “The Bulletin” in its recent Bush Balladry Competition for his poem “Brumby Green,” published in a recent issue. A few years ago a collection of Mr. Winter’s verses was published under the title of ‘-‘The Story of Bidgee Queen.” His penname is “Rivterina.”