IN BOOKLAND

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 31 July 1926, Page 18

IN BOOKLAND

IN PRAISE OF QUEENSLAND

“Till© Land of the Sun” (K. J. Ifrady) reaches us hum. Messrs Robertson and Mullins, Ltd., Melbourne. Air liraity is already a prolific writer, taking Aiidti-aLu as his t-fierne. A jouma-L----i-siD as well as a pace, he- lias avoided the sobei.-ne.-xsi ot the newt-ipa-per mail, but ilia® infused m-te bis imaginative the results of a analytical observation. Mr. Brady’s sit-yle of writing, however, lias nab yet reached) a steady med-.uin, and it oscillates between poetic extra-vagaifee and a pompous ordinary manner of treatment. Umnt eroding matters fail under a too discriminating observation. Ibe wo-rt-h of the- book lies i-n the parbiicula-rs it contains of the great possibilities of North Queensland. Mr. Brady leaves none of t ; he foundational industries untouched, and is probably accurate in the estimates- he forms ot the country’® possibilities. • Starting from! Sydney, he carries hi-s reader quickly through New South Wales to Queensland. From Brisbane -he proceeds- to discourse the coral sea, insicie the Great Barrier Reef, and oonlt-in.ues with the northern towns, and the industries which flourish there; so on till he reaches the wild black country of the Gape York Peninsular. -Many of bis anecdotes are interesting. Hi® Irish character sketch of O’Grady is very well developed. The sugar industry receives treatment bo'th thorough and instructive. He speakslucidly, and with pride, of the timber of North Queensland, and recounts in passing a fact which may not be generally know'll in New 'Zealand-—-that the kauri pine grow-s well in tropical Australia. “The Land of the Sun’’ contain® thirteen .interesting illustrations. The volume is substantial and well printed, and people interested in the development of the fairest- portion of our great neighbour, could go far and fare worse for information than by parting with the required 2s lid to- secure a copy. .

Sir Edward Clarke, K.C., who won the .seat at Southwark during the momentous election, of 1880, and was thus a member of the House of Commons while Disraeli was alive, is the author of “Benjamin Disraeli; the Romance of a Great- Career,” which will be published this year.

A. biography of the British Prime Minister, under the title “Stanley Baldwin: A Biographical. Character Study,” -by Mr. Adam Gown ns Whyte, a.-Glasgow University science graduate, who for a number of years has. been engaged in literary work in. London, is announced by Chapman and Hall.

The death is announced of Airs. Burnett Smith, novelist and journalist, better known by her maiden name, Annie S. Swan. Her novels were very popular 25 years ago, and are still much read. “AMe ns y tie,” .one of fier earliest books, was commended by Air. Gladstone, c-biefly for it®, fidelity to Scottish life and character. ,

Aiessiris Caswell will have Lord Oxford's “Fifty Years -of Parliament” ready during the English autumn. It is in two- volumes. They also have in the press a; new book by Lord Birkenhead, recording, under the title “Wilson and the People- Round Him,” Ills impressions- of hi® visits to America during the war. The second volume of “The Tomb of Tut-ankh-Amen,” by Afesisrs Howard Carter and A. C. Waee, is also announced by Messrs Cassell.

The- Marquis of Huntly, in his 80th year, has written “Mile.siton.eis,” a. b-ook of recollections. He tells of the excitement occasioned, in London, in 1881 by the approaching: marriage of the 1/aroness' .11 urdeht~Cioutfis to- a young American named Ash-mead Bartlett. The marquis writes: At-a dinner party I met. Lord. Beacon.sfiekl (as he hrad then, become), and, during the conversation over the coming, event, he wrote out and read the following lilies 1 :

King Zeus and Danae, in days of old, "Were wedded in a shower of gold, But lie was not- fit- to- black thy boots Ashmead-Barf]eft. Bu rdeft-Goutts.

Under the- presidency of Lady Grey of Fa-llocfon a- Tolstoy Society has been formed in London which aims at promoting a celebration q-f the centenary of Tolsltoy’-s birth in 1928, and more particularly af the- pu-bliciation of a complete edition of his works and the production of his plays. The ediitaon will be edited by Air. Aylmer Alan.de, and introductions to various volumes of it- have been written, or promised, by Mesas. John’ Galsworthy, Maurice Baring, H. G. Wells, Stephen (_!raham, St. John Ervine, and Gilbert Alurray, and Aliss Jane Adams.

On tlie question of the pronunciation of ‘-Pep\s” a correspondent of tlie A-ontlon Sunday Times writes: Tne following epigram on the pronunciation of the name “Pep\‘s” is by air. Ashby * terry : There are peop.e. I’m told—some say there are heaps— Who .speak of the talkative Samuel as • “Peeps”; ' And some, so. precise and pedantic, their step is, Y\ ho call the delightful old diarist “Pep-ys” ; But. those I think right, and 1 follow their steps, Ever mention the garrulous gossip as ‘ ‘Peps. ’ ’ Aliss Alice C. C Gaussen, in “A Later Pepys,” two volumes, gays: Samuel Pepys’s heir, the son of his sister Paulina, is now represented by the family of Pepys-Cdckerell, who continue to pionounce the name “Peeps,” as undoubtedly the cliarist did hiinself; the rest of the family all pronounce it “Peppis,” which is correct, from its original French form, “Pepy.” Air. Henry Wheatley, F.S.A., in his “Pepysiana,” says: “No member of the family is known to call himself ‘Peps,’ and. yet that is the pronuncia- \ lion most favoured by the public.” '