IN ENGLISH EYES

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 112, 14 May 1938, Page 26

IN ENGLISH EYES

THE COLONIAL SCENE ; FEW LITERARY VISITORS fiLANCES AT NEW ZEALAND .Jtfrlttea for the "Evening Post" - 1* Afl.) • Mr, H. G. Wells plans to pay literally a flying visit to Australia, and spend a week at the Science Congress to be held at Canberra. How much longer , he prepares to spend in Australia is not •tated. .There will be speculation on the point, and also on the possible literary jfcesiili; of .MS. one of the most inquiring and original minds-of the age react to Australian life? It is hardly likely that Mr. Wells will be silent about his impressions; but will he make a book about them? This may be doubted, for his mind does not run on such lines. He is an internationalist, and not a nationalist; It is the world that interests him rather than national communities and their achievements and conditions. However, what has been accomplished in Australia should impress him, and we may look for some articles about Sydney and Melbourne, Canberra, the planned capital, the Australian type, and the great problem of Australian population in relation to the lop-sided development of the continent. SURFACE AND DEPTHS. If Mr. Wells considers the idea of a book on Australia he may decide that M long study of a country" demands mora time than he can give to it. This, of course, does not always deter the traveller-author. The men and women who have written books about the United States after a short Visit are sufficiently numerous to be drilled lb companies. . If such judgments are apt to be superficial, books of this kind have their value. The trained observer has Often something worth saying, «ven if he sees for a moment- only. Many successful travel books," indeed, at* no more.than .the record of a tourist's tour. "A Surgeon's Log," for example, is simply the. diary. ol.an.Eng-. lish doctor who took a trip East in a eargo steamer; it has gone into edition after edition,! and remained popular so long.that maybe it will he read by our greatgrandchildren. But if.a writer wishes to dig below the sjicface,' he must spend some time in a country' supplement his visit With intensive, study. Oneof the best books .written on Etigland is the Austrian CohenPorthetm's "Kngland, the Unknown Isle." Cohen-Portheim s apparently knew England well even before, the, outbreak of war made him an internee, James Bryce's monumental and standard "American Commonwealth," which became a text book in the United States itself, was the result of three .visits to that country. A fourth was made before Bryce revised tlje book, and there was a later revision when he was Ambassador at Washington. Bryce, however, could observe with profit 5 in passing. ,He did not spend long in Newf Zealand, but his observations on our. politics ,are still read with interest, and quoted. THE NEGLECTED ANTIPODES. The number - of. eminent English writers-who have visited Australia and New Zealand is surprisingly small. Indeed this may be said of eminent Englishmen generally. It is onjty within comparatively recent years that a Secretary of State for the Dominions saw these Dominions. for himself. XSor every distinguished writer .who has visited Australia and New Zealand, dozens have visited America. "The reasons for this difference axe,< plain enough. The United States is'the greatest republic in the world, andi next to Russia, the largest nation ,in the western civilisation group. Its achievements have been . prodigious. Besides, it lies only 3000 miles from England, a journey of a week hy'a ship of average speed, and about four days by a "flier." Australia and New Zealand are at the other side of the world, and it takes weeks to reach them. Men prominent in literature and" politics find it difficult or impossible to spare the time - for even a short visit, let alone a stay in the country that would enable them to steep themselves in its conditions. Their engagements are heavy, and they do not like to separate themselves for long from the stream of thought and activity. As a result England has been slow to realise what has happened overseas. The idea of the southern Dominions as communities still in the bearded red-shirt pioneering stage lived long in the Motherland. France and the United States were better known than these British communities so far away. < SOME VISITORS. ' How * many well-known English authors are connected by their work with Australia? Among novelists, Henry Kingsley in the early days, and D. H. Lawrence, in recent times. Lawrence visited Australia and the fruits of this are to be found in the novels "Kangaroo" and "The Boy. in the Bush," the latter written in collaboration. There may be ; other authors with ,this Australian connection; it is 'always dangerous to generalise. I am sure, however, that it would be found; on close examination that very few English writers "of high' rank have either, visited Australia or concerned themselves with the country. Moreover, I cannot think of one really outstanding popular nonfiction book by an Englishman about Australia save Thomas Wood's "Cobbers." New Zealand has fared no better, if as well. We had Anthony Trollope in the 'seventies, who,, taking na on a world tour in the service of toe British Post Office, produced a lively set of experiences and impressions. Trollope's large book, "of. which New Zealand forms a part, appears to be out of print, and not much known, but it is well worth dipping into, and fifty or a. hundred years hence it may be more highly .valued as a picture of Froude came here, saw part of the Auckland Province, and had long talks with Sir George Grey. "Oceana" is more widely read than Trollope's record. Kipling looked in on us, but, whatever impression New Zealand may have had on his mind, it produced very little in his work. He -gave us the verse 'on Auckland of which everyone, especially in Auckland, is weary. Why, so it must be asked often, "the unswerving •eason"? The New Zealand climate, it has been said with some justification, is not a climate, but a bundle of samples. "Broom behind the windy town* ought to be Wellington if it isn't, and; the kowhai "flung for gift on Taupo's face," should be one of the of New Zealand. And, of •ourse, there is "McAndrew's Hymn." But in his books of travel, so far as I can discover, Kipling ignores us almost entirely. There is a reference to the view from the Wellington Club and (topics of conversafion there. You hare paly to «tropare*iis interest in us

with his interest in Canada, as revealed in his writings, to'realise what small potatoes we are in the eyes of an English writer. Since Kipling, who? Has there been anyone of high rank save Mr. Shaw? Australia secured Mr. Masefleld for centennial celebrations. Mr. Priestley came as| far as Tahiti to get local colour for his novel "Faraway," but if he was j ,tempted to come on, he resisted the temptation, and contented himself with making remarks about New Zea- - landers and Australian passengers in the liner from San Francisco. Sir Hugh Walpole wishes to revisit the land of his birth. It may be that he or some other English writer will write a better novel of New Zealand life than anything yet produced locally. "COBBERS." ... However, as "Cobbers" shows, it doesn't require an eminent writer to produce a first-class book of travel and interpretation. "Cobbers" is the-work of an examining musician. It has observation, wit, verve, vividness, and sympathy, and the foundation of its success is sympathy. Mr. Wood liked Australia and the Australians from the start ' His own briiiging up had prepared him well for these contacts. The son of a captain of an English tramp, he had sailed with his father as a boy and mixed with men of the sea. Intending to become a sailor, he found his eyesight hopelessly defective, and switched over to music. Of his struggles to finance' himself through Oxford, which he. did, you may read in, "True Thomas," his life story. He thus came to Australia from no semi-

sheltered life. He had knocked against a good many of the world's hard angles, and-was ready' to meet as a brother the friendly, informal, classless Australian. It is not clear whether his travels so far away from the capitals were dictated by his business, but the fact is he did see much more of Australia than most visitors see, and that he saw it all with a keen and appreciative eye. No reader is likely to forget some of his descriptions Of back-country life, like the railway restaurant hot lunch (mutton broth, roast mutton, boiled ; mutton, mutton pie, mashed potatoes, college pudding, preserves, tea,-and coffee) on a' swel; tering day "In a'tin shed that was an oven ;in Which flies buzzed and butter ran." ' There is a good deal ofcriti.cfcnijn. the Jj00k..... For . one thing He finds too much of the give-it-a-go spirit in Australia. "A hard-ridden horise by Micawber out. of Sunshine." But he feels that if hie were in a tight corner the Australian is the best man in the whole world to get him out of it , INSPECTION INVITED. We could do with a book like this about New Zealand and New Zealanders.' Ne wvZeailanders praise and criticise. New Zealand, but they lack , the detachment', of ' the outsider. On the qther hand one grows tired of the compliments of the tourist, which are usually pleasant,, but not bracing. Our. exceptional isolation demands that we be periodically submitted to the: test' of comparison with the outside world by someone who brings no prejudices to the task.' It has been suggested that we should invite Mr. H. V. Morton to write us up. Much as I have enjoyed Mr. Morton's books (thereby writing myself down as hopelessly bourgeois) I think we could do better. An inspection by the author of "Cobbers" would be; more valuable.