NEW PUBLICATIONS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIX, Issue 77, 2 April 1910, Page 13

NEW PUBLICATIONS.

] "The Sporting Chance." By Alice and Claude Askew, authors of Shulamite," "The Plains of Silence," etc. London : Ward, Lock, and Co., Ltd. Any one who has read half-a-dozer or | so of the novels bearing the names of Alice and Claude Askew on the titlepage has a standard of comparison sufficiently high, we think, to cause him some disappointment before he has gone very far into this one. which might almost be mistaken for the work of an under-study of the popular Nat Gould. It is difficult to feel any particular interest in Mostyn Clithero, the leading figure, who, repressed by a self-righteous and puritanic father till he reaches manhood, suddenly develops a consuming passion for the racecourse — a passion which he is able to gratify through the freak of an American millionaire, who, after less than a day's acquaintance, alters his will in his favour and is killed a few hours later in a motor accident. Mostyn differs in one respect from the Nat Gould heroes, who are notonly miraeuloasly successful on the racecourse, but win stupendous bets, in that he declines to gamble, pursuing sport for its own sake, but is uniformly unlucky. The love interest and the sporting interest will appeal to different readers in varying degrees, and do not strike us as being very successfully intertwined. The characters »nggest the melodramatic rather than the human type — excepting the tipsy old Captain Armitage, who has degenerated by degrees from a gentleman to a loafer, and allows his pretty daughter, Rada, the heroine — named after a winning horse — to "run wild." The action of the story is carried through with considerable ability, but the work is much below the level of its authors' best. '•When England Slept." By Captain Henry Curties, author of "The Idol of the King," etc. London: George Belle and Sons. By this time the reading public should be pretty tired of the faction depicting imaginary German invasions of Britain. Captain Curties, in that latest example, the time of which is fixed in 1911, makes so vast a demand on the credulity of the reader at the outset that, if 'it is granted there will be little difficulty-in accepting anything that follows. England must indeed be "sleeping," when Londoners, awakened one September Sunday at dawn by firing, find their city in the hands of two hundred thousand uniformed German troops, whA have seized all the territorial depots and equipped themselves therefrom with uniforms, guns, and ammunition, and who hold the Bank of .England, the telegraph stations, and all the public offices. On Saturday evening this host had been civilians — German waiters, etc., reinforced, however, by an unusual number of visitors with valises, arriving without exciting any suspicion, by the late trains. The rest of the story narrates fighting by sea and land ; the inference presumably being that, Britain, however soundly she may "sleep," and however great the disadvantage at which she may be taken, is invincible, her enemies getting j much the worst of it in the end. This ! may not be the author's intention, but I it is the conclusion that the ordinary ! reader will not fail to draw. There apto be a demand, both in Britain and on the Continent, for this futile class of fiction, which may be roughly summed up in the words of the schoolboy's celebrated epigram on a certain lexicon : "One half was clever — one half was not." We leave it to the patient readers to determine in which category to place Capt. Curties's novel. A clever and characteristic coloured caricature of Mr. Balfour by "G.R.H." adorns the cover of the Pall Mall Magazine for March. The article that takes the leading place describes with illustrations how the general election was recorded and the results published. Halley's comet is the subject of a very interesting article, and naturelovers will appreciate Mr. Puxley"s "Birds in a Garden," with charming photos by the author. Mr. Algernon Blackwood, in his short story, keeps to hi 3 chosen field of the occult, and elaborates a very slight theme to an extent which is almost wearisome, and Jessie Pope has a pleasant little trifle, "Love at the Zoo,'' with capital illustrations by Ralph Cleaver. In the coarse papei "story-book" annexe — a kind of back kitchen adjoining the pictured parlour, are some contributions by | writers of note, and among other items i may be found a story by Annie G. Hopkins, the scene of whicn is laid in New 1 Zealand, and an Australian sketck by I Mrs. M. Forrest. The Lone Hand for April has a varied programme. "The Menace of the Comet" sets out (and discounts) some blood-curdling quasi-scientific predictions as to possible disaster following the proximity of the erratic celestial visitant. There are five spirited illustrations by Lionel Lindsay of "What Halley's Comet Has Seen," including the Destruction of Jerusalem in 66, and the Battle of Hastings, one thousand years later. F. G. Adrian discusses "What We Owe to Captain Cook," and comments on the curious lack of interest shown by the celebrated navigator in all that concerned the great Australian Continent, inferring that "for some reason that has never been revealed he had an aversion to Australia — an aveV/dou that must have formed a prejudice in the public mind that militated against the progress and prosperity of this continent for many years." "The Art of the Year" gives illustrations and criticisms of some of the leading exhibits in the various State capitals. The fiction comprises a New Zealand story, "Jim's Bargain," by Alice A. Kenny; "The Stage" includes some fine portraits; and Will Lawson, in "The Oldest Steamer Afloat," daims that honour for the Stormbird, of Wellington, built on the Clyde in 1854, which has been coatinuously in active service since. "The Book-lover" (Melbourne) is a. bright little threepenny newspaper aad | review, filled with literary gossip. On the first page of the issue b&fore us is an appreciative notice, with excellent portrait, of a well-known Queensland writer of prose and verse, Mrs. M. Forrest. Two books likely to be of great use to legal practitioners, and to other persons whom stress of circumstances may drive into the law courts, reach us from Messrs. Whitcombe and Tombs, the publishers. The first is "The Dworce and Matrimonial Causes Act and Rules," edited by Mr. Justice Sim. The text of the Act of 1908 is set out, carefully prepared notes in smaller type being interspersed with the sections, prescribing procedure, and citing cases which are accepted as precedents. The Divorce Rules prepared by the Judges, and wJiieh came into operation on the Ist of last month, will make the book especially valuable to lawyers. In the other book referred to, "The Land Transfer Act," Mr. David Hutchen, barrister, of New Plymouth, does for conveyancing a similar service to that of Mr. Justice Sim in respect of divorce. In a copious introduction, the author reviews the legislation on the subject prior to the consolidating Act of 1908, and sets forth the present lav/ under various headings, with procedure, and decided cases. Full notes aad lottos are attadwd, witij » subject