HEROES OF NEW ZEALAND.

Grey River Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 5795, 17 January 1887, Page 2

HEROES OF NEW ZEALAND.

This is the title of a very handsome volume in course of publication by Mr Henry Brett of Auckland, the most spirited and enterprising printer and publisher in New Zealand. We are indebted to the agent, Mr E. Walker, for a perusal of the specimen copy of the book, and who will in due course call on most of our readers while canvassing the district. The author of the work is Cap'ain T. W. Gudgeon, who participated in most of the stirring times during the campaigns on the East Coast and West Coast, and who therefore writes of what he knows. Nor is he a novice by any means at the work, having already written '■ Reminiscenses of the War in New Zealand," a very readable and well known book. The author has also the advantage of having been well acquainted with most of the characters and celebrities of whom he writes, many of them having been comrades in arms, as it were. It will be seen that the work is essentially New Zealand in all respects, and on that account; alone it ought to commend itself to popu'ar favor. It recounts in a historical and attractive form the deeda of those who faced death and danger in maintaining the supremacy of Great Britain and the very existence of the colony at times when it was sorely beset by internal and financial troubles — brave deeds which deserve to be placed conspicuously upon record. The work is profusely illustrated, and a set of more accurate portraits — "speaking likenesses " they are in fact — it would not be easy to find ; and on this point we speak from personal knowledge. Although the work will consist of some 700 pages, the men who have helped to make New Zealand what it is are so numerously represented that the biographical notice given to each cannot necessarily be very long. The portraits of all who aided the good woik- black and white alike, the civil servant us well as the b arer of ar.ns — are «iv«ri more with regard to the value of the heroic work performed than for the purpose of exalting any particular set of men, which is a most creditable feature in the work and improves its historical value. As the printing, binding, and general get up are all in the very highest style, either hero or elsewhere, the work will serve as a haodsome presentation volume and prove an ornament to any library. We compliment Mr Brett on his enterprise, and hope he may meet with such encouragement as may lead him to issue other books as racy of the soil as " The Heroes and Defenders of New Zealand." The subscription, we believe, is two guineas per copy ; hut got up in the style promised-i---as no doubt it will be, judging by thje sample — it is cheap for the monty. <;