PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

Evening Star, Issue 9830, 19 October 1895, Page 2 (Supplement)

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

The. New Zealand Reader. Education De

partment, Wellington.

This work of 289 pages has been prepared for the use of the Fifth and Sixth Standards in our public schools, and is, we* trust, the precursor of a series of publications to be Issued under the authority of the Education Department, and intended to find a permanentresting placeou the shelves of every State school library, and to be as much part of the school iurnishing as the desks and forma themselves. There is no reason why it should not be so. There is material enough in the works devoted to New Zealand, to say nothing of the contributions to our daily and weekly, press, to provide half a dozen readers, suited to the capacities of the pupils in the lower as well as the higher standards. And we should be disposed to hazard the guess that Mr Reeves, who has, we happen to know, given a great deal of anxious consideration to the preparation of the little volume, naturally feeling a certain amount of pride in the new departure taken by his Department, found his chief difficulty in selectiug from the wealth of subjects submitted those that should occupy the place of honor. In the preface, which the Minister supplies,, we have such an admission. It was intended originally to make the book one of unabridged and unaltered extracts, dealing entirely with aspects of life and nature peculiar to and illustrative of the history of the colony, but to have given practical effect to that intention would have meant the production of a volume the contents of which were hardly likely to be mastered during the school life of the average pupil into whose hands it will be put. Mr Reeves's journalistic experiences have stood him in good stead here in more ways than one. The subjects are well arranged, and where condensation has been found necessary it has been skilfully done. The book fittingly opens with a translation of Tasman's log by B. Stocker, who also supplies a short introduction; then follows Besant's pen-and-ink sketch of Cook. Froude, Besant, Green, and Dilke, are samples of Old World literary style ; Pyke, Wakefield, Manning, and Cox do credit to the" literature of the colony ; some of Domett's finest verses find places in the book, while our minor poets are represented by May Colborne-Veel and Charles Umbers. Besides contributing a chapter on settlement,, the Rev. Mr Habens (Secretary of Education) has a useful article on Maori pronunciation, and the Surveyor-General furnishes a geographical sketch. The illustrations are all well executed, and will bear comparison with the illustrations that appear in the general run of school books, while the letterpress is turned out in the best style of the Government Printing Office. Mr Reaves and his coadjutors have provided for the use of our schools a reader that cannot fail, if legitimately employed, to stimulate in the minds of the scholars a desire for further knowledge concerning the early history and natural resources of the land they live in. The Department has done its part well; it behoves those who have the administration of the national system to make the most of the good beginning, since the Legislature has shown itself prepared, as far as the state of the finances will allow, to give the Minister a free hand in extending the benefits of free education.

The August number of the ' Windsor Magazine' opens with an interesting chapter, in which Sir Leopold M'Clintock, Sir Alien Young, and Admiral Markham discuss the possibility of reaching the North Pole. Sir Allen thinks the limit of human knowledge on this question has been reached; Sir Leopold favors an expedition via Franz ' Josefland, and Admiral Markham warns the leader of any future expedition against entrusting the preparation of the commissariat to any hands other than his own. One of the most awful things in connection with the Franklyh catastrophe was the discovery by the search party of tins professing to be filled with preserved meat, but which were only packed with stones ! These had been supplied by a contractor named Goldner in England. When the poor unfortunate explorers came to open them, what must have been their horror to find the fiendish act which had been perpetrated ? Goldner disappeared, but he richly deserved to be hanged. Some account is given of the Jackson-Harmsworth barque Windward expedition of 1*194, in which the main interest of English people centres, and the cost of which is being defrayed by the munificence of Mr Alfred Harmsworth. The progress of lawn tennis is described by Walter Baddelley ; the picture gallery and art museums of Liverpool are detailed; the adventures of Dr Nikola are .continued, and such a variety of reading' furnished that no one can take up this number without finding a good deal in its pages that will both instruct and amuse.

The Acme .library (Constable and Co., London) will find particular favor with railway and steamboat travellers. Conan Doyle andF. Phillips ('As in a Looking Glass') Btart the series. The latter's novelette, ' A Question of Color,' tells of a maiden who had nothing but good looks for a dowry throwing over a brainy young fellow, who went to the Cape to carve out a fortune at the diamond fields, for an educated Zulu of colossal wealth, and then offering herself and the Zulu's money to the man she had jilted. The ' Watter's Mou',' by Bram Stoker, is written in his happiest style—a thrilling story with quite dramatic situations.

The guide books issued by the Great Eastern Railway Company for the Continental trips arranged by them in connection with, their annual excursions are cheap, fullof interesting information,amply illustrated, and give reliable data as to hotel and other charges. The features of the brochure before us are its maps, the chapters on ' Holland ancf its Exhibition/ ' Excursions round Amsterdam,' and * Walks through Belginm?