A LITERARY FUND.

Evening Star, Issue 25925, 17 October 1946, Page 6

A LITERARY FUND.

“ That the chief glory of every people arises from its authors ” is a truth slow of recognition in New Zealand. There are fewer authors than there would be if their path were less hard. When their books aro published it is usually in very limited editions. They go out of print almost immediately, and except for earliest readers the public knows them not, There is promise' that these evils will be mitigated by the decision of the Government to establish a literary fund, to encourage writers of merit and .ensure that their works will not be buried within the glass cases of non-circulating libraries even after they have achieved success, i P.E.N. has pressed assiduously for the departure that is now being made, and there are precedents for it in plenty. The patronage will not cost (much. Two thousand pounds a year ■ is the amount which it has been resolved to set aside for objects that should appeal to all. An Australian Literary Fund is subsidised by the Government to the extent of £6,000 a year. Of the objects to .which P.E.N. in this country has suggested that a like fund should be applied first come subsidies for the publication of worthwhile historical works. Then there might be subsidies, for publishing -belles-lettres, poetry or prose, that are not capable of profitable production on a commercial basis. Next were placed grants to authors engaged on promising fiction, or other creative writing. Prizes for young authors were suggested, and the reprinting of New Zealand classics in cheap editions. Ur Edward Shortland’s account of his visit to Otago Harbour in 1843, for example, with his foot journeyings southward, as far as Taien Mouth, and north to Akaroa, and tho impressions he gives of Maori life at that time; is a racy little book, which should be household fare to Otago youth, and the can be said of Vincent Pyke’s hvely story ‘ Wild Will Rndcrby,’ with its tiictures of the earliest Dunstan diglinJ. Lady Barker’s sketches of early 'station life are as vivid andl strip? Mb’™ if they were written yesterday, but these books and a number of others

are entirely unknown to the multitude. Some of the best New Zealand poets would be completely unknown by now if it were not for the anthologies. Mr Alan Mulgan has written: “ A large proportion of books issued in New Zealand are still printed at the expense of tlie author or his backers, and often the author has to distribute his book.” It is easy to imagine what obstacles such requirements must make for creative work. A University Press like that of Melbourne, which has been suggested, would bring distinction to the cultural life of this country, and the managers of that press, the Government, and P.E.N., which does something already, with too limited means, to give advice and information to New Zealand authors, might .be the best deciding power on how the Government’s £2,000 a year should be spent. Australia endows lectures on Australian literature at each of the universities, at a cost of £IOO a year. It is not too soon for that example to be followed here.