BOOKS TO READ

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XIV, Issue 282, 8 November 1924, Page 12

BOOKS TO READ

DEER STALKING IN NEW ZEALAND. (By Cant. T. E. Donne C.M.G-, and published by Constable and Coy.) Price. 255. Although several books have been published which deal with the grand sport which th© rivers and lakes of New Zealand afford we believe that this is the first book devoted entirely to shooting in this Dominion. The publication of such a book is certainly overdue, and now that it has coine we are well content that the publication had been delayed until Captain Donne had done his work. That he should write with enthusiasm of New Zealand is not only natural but also l very right and proper and he certainly has every cause to be proud of the sport which his country can now give to the man who prefers the rifle to th© gun. The author has found so much ignorance in his travels through America, and Europe as to exactly what and whore New Zealand is that he begins by a description of its georgraphical position and features. It is possible that such | an introduction may make the book more complete; but to the sportsman, at any rate it is wholly unnecessary. For many years the Dominion has been famous as the home of giant trout and giant red deer —giant that is from the point of view of the antlers. And the fact which has always seemed so wonderful is that both th© trout and the deer were imported. It really seems almost an oversight of Nature not to have peopled the rivers and hills of a country with denizens which so obviously thrive in them. New Zealand is an extraordinary country .in that no quadrupeds of any size are indigenous. Pigs were probably the first animals of any size to be imported, and these were brought by Captain Cook in the hope that pork might prove a counter attraction to cannibalism. The first red deer to reach New Zealand comprised a stag and a hind which were sent out from Thorndon Park, Essex, in 1850. The hind was killed after liberation, whereupon H.R.11. the Prince Consort sent out another stag and hind from the Royal Park at Richmond. The second hind was also unlucky and died on the voyage, and so Lord Petre supplemented his original gift by sending out another stag and two more hinds. These deer reached Nelson in good condition and with the two stags previously mentioned were the progenitors of the present herds in Nelson and Marlborough districts. Th© Wairarapa herd was established by one stag and two hinds from the Royal Park of Windsor in 1862, and the Otago herd from som© calve sent out in 1870 from the forest in Ivermark. Forfarshire. The Itakaia herd was formed by importing nine deer iroiii Stok© Park, Buckinghamshire, in 1897, while the Boulter River dee» came from th© famous herd of Warnhani Court. Sussex, m 1908. These herds formed the basis of the existing racy of New Zealand red deer. There is on© most interesting fact in connection with these importations of which Captain Donne makes nt direct mention. It must be remembered that all these deer were transferred from the northern to the southern hemisphere where the seasons are exactly opposite. In the northern hemisphere deer shed theii antlers in February, March or April; but in New Zealand this process occurs in September or October. How long did it take th© deer to acclimatise themselves to the new seasons? Horses imported from Australia or New Zea land to India find the same difficulty of seasons and they begin their winiei coats at the beginning of the Indian hot weather. This is so well known that walers ar© always kepta full yea-i to acclimatise without being*put to fui work, and at the end of this time they nave adapted themselves to the changed conditions. But th© growing of a winter or summer coat is a trifling matter compared with tiie growth of aiitiers, aim it would be interesting t< know whether any tendency has evei been noticed in New Zealand to “throw back” and shed their antlers in th* spring time of the southern henusp.iere. The rutting season must alsc have changed in the same way, and the very fact that this has occurred so apparently easily is proof of the wonderful powers of adaptability with which the doer and other imported ruminants have been endowed by Nature. Captain Donne gives full and detailed information about the various hunting districts and practical hints on travelling, camping and the actuoi stalking. There are two excellent chapters on stalking and old-time yarns which make the most delightful reading, and the information given about tho natural history of red deer in general and antlers in particular is detailed and exhaustive. The author has spared no pains to make his book complete in every respect, and he writes always with enthusiasm and frequently with real charm. The book is illustrated with many excellent protographs of deer and their antlers and some delightful bit s of hunting country. The two maps show all that is necessary in spite of the somewhat small print used for the names. * 4 * * “OCEAN TRAMPS.” (By Admiral of the Fleet Lord Wester Wemyss, G.C.8.) Here are stories of the South Seas—of copra and pearls, of Kanaka girls and ships, and of Mr Billy Harman, adventurer. Billy is of doubtful charac ter, but kindly spirit. Gun running, ship stealing, pearl poaching—he tries his han dat all. Whether he lives up to his motto —“Crooked dealing' don’t pay”—is somewhat doubtful. One tning is certain .adventurer he is and adventure be achieves. —T’ub., ’Hutchinsons. Price. (>/-. * * * * ‘ ‘EVE AND THE ELDERS.’ ’ (By Winifred Graham.) The heroine of Mis® Graham’s latest novel is a very human, and attractive personality, and throughout her perilous adventures, in which love plays a part, retains the reader’s intense sympathies. Pitiful and inexperienced, she fearfully accompanies the young, handsome elder, who she has helped to rescue from an angry mob, to the stronghold of Utah itself. Duly “initiated,” and forced into a plural marriage, she eventually escapes to the mountain homo of an English woman, herself a slave of Mormonism. And there the web of intrigue closes round her. Miss Graham knows Mormon rites and ways as docs no other living writer and invests her sombre theme with a wealth of incident and human feeling. • — Pub., Hutchinso.n Price, 6/-. * * * * “DAUGHTERS OF THE SEVEN MILE.” The central theme of this brilliantly written novel is the jealously of the townsfolk of Australia with the “up country” people. Ann Wilsoni loves the bush land, her home the Seven Mile, while her husband an dlater, their children yearn with all their hearts desire, for the town. Hcncethe tragedy of this intensely dramatic story, unfolded with a rare sympathy and sin verity, in which Australian life and surroundings arc depicted bulb with power and knowledge.—Pub., Hutchinsons. Plice, 6/-.