NEW PUBLICATIONS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 122, 23 May 1908, Page 13

NEW PUBLICATIONS.

NEW ZEALAND BOOKS. „ "Shingle-Short ; and other Verses." By B. E. Baughan, author of "Verses," "Reuben," etc. Wellington : Whitcombe and Tombs, Ltd. The rapid growth of our New Zealand literature is a notable featur of our time ; but only a comparatively small proportion of our new books are distinctly colonial in subject; and here t as elsewhere, the great mass of' our publications has little if any literary distinction, even though literary in inintention. We have in New Zealand several women poets who have deservedly' gained high reputation ; and there is now another to be added to tho list who can hold her own with the best. Comparison, howover, would be as profitless as it would be invidious; for Miss Maughan is one of the most original of our -writers. Had she been born and brought up in the "bush," she could not have more faithfully reflected its most characteristic aspects, nor have entered more sympathetically into the inner Hfe of the settlers of ,the interior. Nor is she- less successful in depicting the mental attitude of the Maori people, with whoso traditions and habit of thought sho\ eeems to be wonderfully familial. From beginning to end of her book we find no sign of those hasty inferences and time-honoured fallacies which one looks for almost as a matter of course in stories and verse relating to New Zealand subjects. We would be the last to depreciate the work of local authors, but it- is sometimes difficult to commend or even excuse the crude and misleading pictures limned by those whose long residence and opportunities of observation and study might reasonably have led us to expect better results. Miss Baughan brings to Her work an almost unique equipment. She has a fine command of language and rhythm, an instinct for the one right word ; and, her fine powers of imagination are balanced by a conscientious precision and accuracy where matters of fact are concerned. How her landscapes and atmosphere may. impress those who have never seen our islands we can only surmise ; to us they recall familiar aspects of the still life as Well as of the human activities of the. "bush" _ with all the vividness of reality. This alone is 'no mean achievement, but so much might be accomplished by any one with accurate perceptions and the true poetic faculty. Our author's strength liesj however, in a region demanding higher powers and deeper insight. She can depict a human soul — not one type alone, but in many varieties and "under many aspects ; and ih her power of psychological analysis she reminds us now of Browning, without his ruggedness, and again of Goethe. We have had more musical writers, it may be ; but few with a like quality of greatness. The opening poem, "S.hingle-Short,'' may at -first repel the reader ; but as he proceeds its marvellous^ analytical power will take hold of him. Possibly the author had some actual model in mind, but the scheme of the piece was none the less bold on that account, nor the achievement less. It was a daring experiment to endeavour to trace in detail the workings of a mind in which the reasoning powers were imperfectly developed, yet sufficient to be painfully conscious of defect and to speculate on the broblems of existence in their peisonal aspects. It is a remarkable study, painfully real ; but the author has noO made the mistake of confining herself, to sombre colours. In "Maui's Fish," we have a poem instinct with the spirit of what we might fall the sagas ot the Maori of old, and the manner in which the wonderful old myth' is interpreted as a. 'prophecy of the' New v Zealand to be is as admirable as it is original : "Still alive is that Fish! N Hero, on the edgo of the world, on the rim of the morning, Sho stands — Tangaroa's dear daughter, a vigorous virgin, Fresh from the foam. Still tho daylight is young in iier eyelids, and on her full forehead : Her brown limbs gleam .from the bath, Dew is yet in her wind-tossing hair. The wild winds are her walls, and she stands hero, untamed as aoa-watei 1 , Brave with the heart of tho Ocean, sweet with the heart of the Sun.

Ay! A Bca-.wind for freshness, a sea-wave for brightness, ' A sea-sunrise ' for beauty, a strong sea for strength, Hero ehe stands, Main's Fish, here she shines a new Land from the Ocean, Alivo 'mid the over-live Sea."

"Burnt Bush," is notable no less on account of its form than its subject. Rimeless, like most of the poetry in this volume, it has the rhythmic chime and alliteration of the old Saxon verse, and the author has demonstrated that this ' form is quite suitable to modern English. "Early Days" is a picture of the past that will appeal strongly to early settlers, for it is as truthful as it is vivid. "A Bush Section" 1 is another backblpek"s theme, and is moreover an interesting picture of Uic workings of the mind of v child. <J Thb H^ill," is a powerful study of the burden of a hic]den crime. Passing over so v me poems of no less 'hieiit, *ye come to "Tho Eternal Children," a dream picj ture, characterised by delightful pluy iof fancy. Finest of all, to our mind, is the closing poem, bearing the riot very suggestive title of "The Paddock." i It occupies some seventy pages, and is j a Veritable epic of the bush. We know lof nothing in Australasian verse to . equal it, in this aspect, though voluhVes J have been written dealing with kindred i themes. We have the typical characters | of youth, middle age, and x olcl-age— the j- girl, who feels the restraint and drudg- , cry of the ' backblocks life and longs for a wider range ; tho housewife with her ! little ones, who looks bafk thankfully I and triumphantly on early struggles ; ■ and the pathetic figure of t,ho aged i -Maori woman, who lives in the memor- | ies of the past. More than this, thesoul in nature is invoked, and we have in the songs respectively of the White Clover, the Sunbeams, the Creek, the Wind, the Seeds; and of the ancient "Cabbage-tree" tho like sentiments transferred to the natural surroundings. In most hands, such an experiment would have failed, but our author has welded the various parts into a harmonious whole, and the lyrics scattered through "The Paddock" are amonf, the most charming things in the book.. The appearance of Miss Baughan's volume is an important event in New Zealand literature, and we could wish that her , collection had a more attractive title.

"Under the Shadow of Dread." A. Drama. By R.T.H. Wellington: Whitcombe aud Tombs It, is something for a writer to aim high, even though he may not fulfil his own ideal ; md this five-act play deserves respectful treatment. Whatever may be its shortcomings, it .evidences imaginative power, no small measure of the literary gift, the lyric faculty, and conscientious study. This much is due to the author, though wo cannot regard his work as a success. Us style, we fear,, is too antiquated i'or actual representation, and rcgaided from Iho literary side, the undertaking is too heavy for abilities which do not actually, amount to jraniua. Our. author, iuu*

chosen for his setting the England of Alfred's ddys, when the Banes were ravaging the land, and the monarch is one of tho characters, though by no means the central figure. "Tho incident of the cakes" is nob omitted, nor the royal visit in disguise to the Danish camp ; nor could any playright easily pass over such picturesque traditions. The chief interest, however, lies in the love story of a certain noble Saxon maid and an ealdorman ; the lady being made captive by an enamoured Danish captain on the eve of her intended mar Hage. There are many characters and other interests ; but the lovers are unitod in the ond. In such a work, a diffioult problem is the language. The speech of the time would be as unintelligible now as Frisian, but the author hjis imitated as closely as possible the Elizabethan style, though with inevitable modernisms. At times he is almost Johnsonian in his departure from the vernacular. In the first scene jvc find the servant of a Saxon nobleman saying, "What boots it who rules o'er us? — So one has a moderate computation of labout . . ." — rather a stilted speech for a labourer even of our own time. The only safe course would have been to confine the language as far as possible .to the Saxon which still forms the staple of 'our 'language. Ivingsley, in his "Three Fishers" and other poems, Tennyson, Longfellow, and other ' writers, have shown with wnat artistic effect it may be employed. Our author's blank verje is poetic but over-florid, and the soliloquies and disquisitions are too diffuse. Yet his effort is worthy of all commendation. Some of the interspersed lyrics are admirable, and the ballad in the .first scene, which we quote, is a capital imitation of our earliest English songs : — Ho, ho, ho, ho, for tho lusty wood-life, A ;woodman merry to- be. Go whet mine axe, my steel-tongued axe — Ho, ho, to hear the little birds pipe, All in the greenwood tree — Too*ee, too-ee, twit-twit. Ho, ho, ho, ho, for the lusty wood-life, A woodman merry to be. Mine axe is whetted, my eteel-tongued axe — Ho, ho,, to hear the little' birds pipe, AJ^'l fell the greenwood treo — Ec-wee, co-wee, wee-wit, ' Th£ Education Department has issued, supplementary to the School Journal, a second series of wall-pictures of the native flora, photographed from nature, numbers 9to 20. Excellent descriptions accompany the plates. The set contains three of ourYmost characteristic plants — the Phormium tenax (miscalled "flax" and "hemp ), in reality a lily; the Maori "ti" (Cordyline), our beautiful palm lily, rot unlike the palmetto of South America, and like the palmetto, vulgarly styled the "cabbage-tree" ; and our ttoolest tree-fern, the "mamuka" (Cyathea medullaris). Other plants represented and described are two species of olearia and two of celraisia, or mountain daisies, the Chathaiji Island lily (Myosotidium nobile), the Ourisia macrophylla, • Cassinia vauvilliersii, Pratia angulata, and Fagus solandri, one of our native beeches, miscalled "birch" by bushmen. We regard this series as a very valuable aid in the education of children, both in town and country. Either of the publications edited by Mr. Fitchett/, Melbourne — "Life" and "The New Idea'' — would be sufficient, one might suppose, to engross the time and energy of one man 5 but each is excellent 111 its own way. The May issue of "Life," a miscellany of the "Review of Reviews" type, has a capital cover design in colours by Owen E. Fisher, and numerous illustrations, including caricatures of the month The summary of the month's news, by the editor, is comprehensive and vigorously written, with un entire absence of platitude. There is an aniusing story of the adventures of a conjuror in the Urewera country. There are over a .hundred closely printed pages' of news, literary matter; and miscellaneous it!ems, and with the issue for the current month the magazine is permanently enlarged. The "New Idea" is especially a 1 pafter for the home, making its appeal to "Australasian women." It is large quarto size, and a paper pattern in the latest fashion \s a regular feature. Tho May issue cpntains eighty pages, all devoted 'to tho various interests of the household, and diversified with; picture, story; and verse. Ifc should fc>e noted that the paper is no mere paste-and-scissor& compilaitor., but contains much valuable original mutter, and is adapted to tho needs and surroundings of the Australasian home.