NEW PUBLICATIONS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXII, Issue 139, 9 December 1911, Page 17

NEW PUBLICATIONS.

CONQUERORS OP THE AIR. "All About Airships : At- Book for Boys." By Ralph Simmonds, author of "The School Mystery," " For School and Country," etc. With a, colour frontispiece and a largo number of illustrations from photographs. London : Cassell and Company, Limited. 6s. (S. and W. Mackay.) Proud will be the schoolboy whose holiday prizes this season include Mr. Simmonds's handsome volume. Over 370 pages, in bold type and profusely illustrated, this up-to-date book of rafcrence contains all that any ordinary enquirer would desire to know about the history and evolution of the aerial transit machines which are taking so conspicuous a place in the life and activities of the day, and are in a way making history of their own. "How Men Thought of Flight," and' the romance of early speculations, experiments, and inventions, occupies the opening chapters. The legend of Icarus, the author suggests, had probably an historic basis. That Daedalus was an ingenious inventor of a bygone age can scarcely be doubted, nor is there anything improbable in the idea that it was an experiment with some kind of parachute or gliding plane that his venturesome son lost his life. The catastrophe might have been seen from a distance, and imagination could easily supply the wings and the waxen attachments. Wild types of flying machines were devised (on paper) in pre-scientific days, and learned lectures delivered thereon, but in the few cases where the experimental stage ■was reached a broken limb was the normal practical result. Aeronautics date from the Montgolfier balloon of 1782 (which, on its descend, taken for some strange monstrous beast, was savagely attacked *and torn to pieces by the terrified rustics armed with, pitchforks). Just eighty years later the highest point, in every sense, in the art was reached by Glaisher v and Coxwell, who, at the amazing altitude of 36,000 ft, reached the limit of human respiration, and who were fortunate in retaining not only sight and hearing— which other adventurers have lost at extreme heights, but even life itself. The various types of airship and aeroplane have in late years developed in rgany directions. The art has its own regular serial magazines, and a library might now easily be formed on the subject. The voyage of the America, which is described at length in this book, is exciting as any romance. The aeronauts did not cross the Atlantic ; but their journey of 1008 miles in 71£ hours was a world's record for distance, and they sent the first wireless messages ever received from an airship in transit. Not content with discussing the type of machine in actual use and the points in which they still fall short, our author discusses the possibilities of the future. "In. old times smuggling was, without a, doubt picturesque. .... Once again, smuggling will probably be a matter of night- work, of stealthy signals and wireless messages." "One of the most notable changes will probably be in landscape. On various open spaces there' will be aeroplane stations and perhaps airship harbours — whole colonies of hangars, with repairing shops and petrol stores. ... If airships should continue to develop and become more trustworthy and handy, the country may be dotted with wide,- wind -sheltered pits into which they can drop for shelter. Arrows and marks may also be cut in the chalk soils by way of guide to the air pilot." The author says that fictionists have done much to confuse the public mind in destroying all sense of proportion as to the value of the work already accomplished by the practical airmen, or of the .mathematical problems in the difficult science of aero-dynamics yet to be solved. The wild and impossible stories of craft that traverse continents and mountain ranges easily as ocean liners navigate the seas — and not content with soaring over alps extend their conquests to the ether — these tend to make us "expect too much of our scientists and inventors." We fail to recognise upon what an epoch we are entering, or to view our aerial pioneers in true perspective. "People should respect their great airmen as they respect their great admirals." The curious fact is noted that the appearance of a bal- 1 loon or aeroplane in the heavens seems to excite neither interest nor curiosity among Oriental peoples. The book has on© necessary feature— it is profusely supplemented with illustrations which elucidate. The record is brought well up to date, and shows 1911 to have been a year of unprecedented progress, having seen five great races, bringing together an extraordinary variety of machines. The latest contest described in the book was for the Daily Mail's*second £10,000 match, the- course being th© circuit of Britain. This event brings the v record to 25th July. It aroused immense interest, and attracted many thousands of- spectators. The winner was a- Frenchman, Lieut, Conneau. "Fairy Rings." By Edith Howes, author of "The Sun Babies." With four illustrations in colour by Frank Watkins. London: Cass'ell and Company, Ltd. (S. and W. Mackay, Wellington, 4s 6d.) The Belle Sauvage House has a- wide repute for its dainty art books for young as well as eld, and the "Nature Books for Children," illustrated with beautiful subjects in colour, has extended to about a. dozen volumes by different hands. Last Christmas "The Sun's Babies" marked the advent of a new 6toryteller and took a prominent place in the series, showing that as a pott, a nature-lover, or one who has had dealings with the faifies, there is a, New Zealand lady who can hold her own with the best. And "Fairy Rings," we feel sure, will meet the hearty welcome it deserves. For Mies Howes, in very truth, "on honeydew hath fed and drunk the milk of Paradise," and she has an advantage sometimes denied to an author, that her work is given forth to the world in worthy form and adequate attire. Uniform with its predecessor, it is printed in legible type on beautiful paper, with illustrations and binding in keeping. The author's imaginative faculty seems inexhaustible, her threads are coherent, her fairies will appeal to her young readers as sympathetically as the very real brother and sister Twin and Win, who go in quest of the Fairies they are convinced aie to be found in the New Zealand bush, and who, aided by the Dream Fairy, have a month's freedom of Fairyland with all its gifts and privileges, and with open vision and hearing, traverse the wonders of earth, air, and water, in ocean deeps, in polar wastes, and in earth's caverns. The friends of childhood are all here — gnomes and mermaids, the Man in the Moon, the Saltgrinder, and Father Christmas, Hans Andersen's immortals, and friends from the Arabian Nights. But nowhere, even in Fairyland, is there beauty to surpass that of the Bush, and the loyal children, failing to iind the sought* for native fairies there, have the happiness of acclimatising a royal line of authentic descent from the Green Island of tho West, which has alwajs been dear to the Fairy Folk. Every page is bright with fancy, and the incidental lyrics are perfect iv their way. Mr. Watkins, the artist, has entered thoroughly iuto the spirit of the author — hia Irontispiece, where he illustrates the finding of the crock of gold at tha Rainbow/rest, ifi a

work of genius, and his inimitable Old Salt-grinder is worthy of Cruickehank nmaeelf. "The Keeper of the Gate.'* By Sydney C. Gner, author of "The Path -to HoncM/' "The Power of the Koye," etc. Third impresaion. •Edinburgh and London : William Blackwood and Sons. The lady whose name in literature is that which figures on this title-page has been an industrious worker for more than twenty yeare, and has nearly twenty novels to her credit, mostly historic studies on Eastern themes. There is much in the name of a book, and the author has a happy gift in this direction, as ilkibtrated in the present instance, in which the title gives the crowning touch to a story of the Indian Mutiny which, from any point of view, takes high rank. What will probably most forcibly strike those whose Menu ories extend to 1857 is the success the author has > achieved in sustaining the "unities," in matters remote not only in place but time. The stirring events on which the romance is based occurred many yeare before the author was born, and in such circumstances nothing lees than omniscience could' prevent an occasional anachronism; bub the general fidelity of the life of the time— the fashions in speech and garb, the catchwords and chorus-snatches of the hour, and a hundred minor details— these are nothing less than marvellous to those who were contemporaries, and to whom the tidings of the Mutiny came day by day when the nation was moved to its depths by agoniefi of anxiety. To youth, impressions of such times are indelible 5 and it is no small testimony to Mias Gregg's gift that her book has in an exceptional degree the power of recall" ing them — almost in the same way as a volume of Punch or the Illustrated News of those bygone days. "The Keeper of the Gate gives a vivid picture of the inner workings of the conflict; the divided counsel of the officials, civil and military, whose responsibilities were so tremendous, and of the highminded but tcmchingly mistaken faith imposed by the older men on the treacherous Sepoye. The character-pic-tures, of men and women, are strong and convincing; the love element has a large place in the story ; and there I are really fine characters, some of whom are likely to live long in the memory. "Troubled Waters." By L. Cope Corn- • ford, author of "London Pride and London Shame." Edinburgh and London,: William Blackwood and Sons. / Mr. Oornford has a picturesque power of eloquent description. The description on page 151 of a factory interior is a case in point. A few descriptive phrases and> the scene springs into life. There are many arresting passages in the story. "He drove down to the House of Commons. The light upon the clock tower beaconed high upon the dark blue dome of sky. 'Ay/ said Mr. Borlase, 'if ever, there was a false fue, a wreckers' light, it's you !' " But the book seems strangely formless and lacking in purpose. If one should set out to classify it in some given category, he would soon have it decorated with as many tags and labels as the tourist ostentatious of his wanderings accumulates- on his travellingI trunk. It is not, though in some ways it might pass as such, a sociological romance; it could easily, though not quite fairly, be dismissed as y. melodramatic novel. Sometimes one might suppose the author to be desperately in earne&t; again, he seems to be fascinated with some whim that takes possession of him as he writes, and to allow it to carry him away as the impulse of the moment dictates. There is a profusion of adventure, some very shady characters, including a black- 1 mailer and a pretty adventures* widow. The best-constructed and mo'st v coheivnt character is an unprincipled labour agitator who works upon his fellows until he gains his ambition— a Ministerial portfolio — and narrowly escepns the vc-n-geauco of hip. disillusioned and exasperated suporteiy. But the characters are unreal, and the author ha* scattered more than average powers over efforts which seem to have no definite direction or end. A sumptuously produced book is "Brittany and the Bretons," by George Wharton Edwards (Herbert and Daniel, London). It is made up of notes of summer wanderings in a country full of old-world charm. The work is beau£if.ulj;y_ illustj^d^