BOOKS AND BOOKMEN.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 16564, 30 May 1914, Page 8

BOOKS AND BOOKMEN.

A COLONIAL GEORGE ELIOT.

ONE OF NEW ZEALAND'S AUTHORS. (By If. J. L.)

It seems strange that a gifted authoress, tho scenes of whose stories are nearly all laid in New Zealand, should be so little known in tho dominion. Tho works of tho lady who writes under tho nom de plume of " Alien " havo now been before the public about a quarter of a century. Most of them are to be found in the circulating libraries of our great cities and principal towns and yet there are thousands of tho inhabitants of Now Zealand who hnvo never read ono of her books nor even heard her name. She is, wo believe, the first novelist who ventured upon writing stories the scenes of which Ho in the South Island of New Zealand. And she. is certainly to be congratulated on the success of her experiment. She has dono for the gorges and livers of Canterbury, for the lakes and sounds of Otago what George Eliot has done for Warwickshire, what Charlotte Bronte has done for Yorkshire, what Amelia. Barr has done lor tho Highlands of Scotland.

" Alien's " descriptions of the mountains and glens, the bush and river, the lakes and sounds are so felicitous, so graphic and so realistic that to road one of her stories is almost like taking a motor tour through the Otira Gorge, another across the Canterbury Plains and then a steamer excursion to To Anau and Manaponri and Milford Sound. But the wonderful word painting with which she brings the scenery of our land before us is only the framework, not the picture. And the pictures are well worthy of the frames in which they are set. "Alien" is a firm believer in the "rapport" between climate and character, a consummate artist in the power with which she paints portraits of tho types of manhood and womanhood bred among the silenco and solitude of tho lonely glens and glades which border our lakes or radiate from cur mountains. In fact it might fairly be said that the motto of her stories is "Silence is the mother country of the strong." The first of her long novels which came out about twenty-five years ago is entitled " Wheat in the Ear." The scene of this story lies partly in the Otira Gorge and partly in Christchurch. The heroine, the only daughter of parents living in an Otira Gorge farm, lives in her childhood a wild tomboy life riding, swimming, shooting, hunting, till she acquires a strength and agility the envy of ail. who know her. At the age of fourteen she is .sent up to Christchurch tobe educated, enters as a student of Canterbury College, scores a series of brilliant successes, and eventually wins tho B.A. degree. But the culture of Christchurch gradually creates a distaste for the rural simplicity and homeliness of the Otira Gorge. When she goes home for her holidays she feels out'of her element, the gulf between her and her old-fashioned parents widens. She settles down in Christchurch, and eventually marries a dry-as-dust professor, who is attracted to her simply by her distinguished abilities. But he knows nothing about the meaning of love, buries himself in his books, and almost ignores his wile's existence. By and by she breaks down in a" serious illness, and is ordered by tho doctor to try the effect of her native air. She goes home to the Otira Gorge farm, and is nursed bacK to convalescence by the old mother she had despised. During her illness, Dryasdust, who is fifteen years her senior, dies. Then her heart turns back to the country lover whom she had discarded, and the curtain falls on a liappv marriage for real love. A still higher note is struck in ' Tho Majesty of .Man," a stately picture, of tho'heroism to which womanhood may be carved bv tho stern chisels ot solitude and sorrow. But -Alien s masterpiece is "The Twisted Hall, a work of genius which would have done credit to George Eliot herself. ihe scene of the story is laid in a solitary glen on the borders of hake Manapouri. The two chief characters are an old artist, living there with no other society but an only daughter. Their onlv'visitors aro the tourists tvlio come to explore the lake in the summer. During the season tho daughter goes down to the hotel near the wharf to try to sell some of her father's pictures. Occasionally a parcel is sent to Christchurch or Dunedin for the Exhibition But though their ability is admitted they do not s+riko the 'public fancy sufficiently to be generally popular. At last one summer a young artist comes down to visit the glen and pitches his tent iieai the old man's but. The two artists accidentally meet. The old man invites the voung one to look at Ins pictures The young artist overwhelms the old man with generous praise and undertakes to find customers for many of his paintines. hat he does, however, is to take tho pictures to his own studio and add to each of them the finishing touch needed to make them catch the public eye. A rapid sale at lucrative prices follows Tho secret, unsuspected by the old man is discovered by the daughter and the kindness done the father is the first step towards winning tho hand of the gul. Then follow bereavement, .separation, tragedy and mastery, all painted with colossal power, culminating at last in a happy reunion. , , There is indeed one drawback, looked at from the ethical standpoint, to the u-orth of Alien's work. She is tend of making the plot, of her stories a woman's mistake in horhrs marriage and of trying to show that the discipline and sorrow and hardship brought upon her by that mistake makes 1111 the long run a finer woman of her than earfv happiness ever could have done. That is fatal philosophy and therefore false art. The women who retrieve the "consequences of a mistake in their first marriage are the exception, not the rule. " Alien," however, seems to have outgrown this error in her later years, as no such plot mars the s+ately crrandeur of her recent works. Taken as a whole she is a queen amongst authoresses. Anyone who has not yet read her stones has a treat in store. We feel sure that every impartial reader mil consider the best of them worthy to bo placed on the same shelf as "Adam Bede, "The Mill on the Floss," "Shirley and "Jane Eyre."

THE ART OF COLONISATION. A new edition has been published in London of Edward Gibbon Wakefield's famous book, first issued in IK-IH, on "Tho Art of Colonisation.- the core of tho book lie'; in tho letters dealing with the subject of the sale of land ft was the subject that lay nearosfc to Wnkefiold'B heart, and his idea of tho sale of land at a ' sufficient, price" was tb<> generating point ot his whole thcorv of colonisation. In 1830 Wakefield, with a band of young men intenselv interested: i" colonisation '• the theorists of 1830,',' laid befo'ro Lord Ilowick. Under Secretary for the Colonies, all their many objections to the gratuitous bestowal of land. Lord Howictfs despatch of 1832, promulgating rules for the sale ol land, directed that the proceeds ol tho sale should be appropriated to the conveyance of selected emigrants, and later Lord John Russell organised the machinery of public emigration, and created a Board of Land and Emigration Commissioners, thus forging the connecting link between tho disposal oi Crown lands and the conveyance of immigrants. . Wakefield's plan of a sufficient grice- ,J was, in effect, to prevent labour-

ers from becoming landlords too soon. It ensured an adequate supply of land to an upper class; equally ensured an adequate supply of labourers; and provided for the gradual and not too rapid passage from the second class to the first; besides providing a fund for the immigration of suitable colonists. By the illness of his daughter, "fi akelield was prevented from joining in the emigration to South Australia. While the first ship was approaching the shores of the new colony he was giving evidence before a Select Committee, of tho House of Commons, and saying: "We are. I think, going to colonise New Zealand." Immediately afterwards, and as a consequence of that statement, an. association was formed for the purpose. In 1840, -after endless negotiations, manipulations, interviewing, controversy, pamphleteering and publishing of every sort on Wakefield's part, the first batch of emigrants was sent out to New Zealand and its colonisation began. That it was thus begun may bo credited to Wakefield, who assured the despatch ot the first ship when it was believed that the Government was about to lay an embargo on it. The ~Sc\v Zealand Company was 'later founded, but for all the wise drafting of its articles this attempt to found a political society on philosophical principles was defeated by its collision with the local Government of New Zealand, erected bv the Home Colonial Office. Even Wakefield, with his sagacity and foresioht. could not retrieve it from this unhaimv clash of idealism with reality. The New Zealand Company did not dio without bringing to birth two daughter settlements, the Scottish Free" Church Colony of Otago and the English High Church Colony of Canterbury, and in the planting of both Wakefield took an active part. Indeed, the idea of sectarian colonies was his own. The Colonial Office continned to be anathema to "Wakefield and those who founded the New Zealand Company. In 1844 he writes, "We (yesterdav) declared waj; against tho Colonial Office." and the internecine conflict was waged to the bitter end. It was in New Zealand where Wakefield's principles were most completely applied and here ho ended his days in 1862. MORE OMAR. Thirteen newly discovered quatrains by Omar Khayyam have been presented to the American Oriental Society by Professor Abraham Yohannan, of Columbia University. Tho verses, r,U of which were unknown to Edward Fitzgerald when ho translated the " Rubaiyat." were found in an ancient illuminated manuscript purchased a vear ago from a nobleman by Dr Hagob Kevorkian, a wealthy Persian nrchroologist, who wished to add the manuscript to his collection in his Fifth Avenue residence. He discovered Omar's ve?ses afterwards, and took them to Professor Yohannan, who, after long examination, pronounces them to be genuine. There aro two duplicates of tho verses previously found, but all the others are now made known for the first time. It is believed they date back to 1340 and are the oldest of all Omar's compositions. The " Now York Times " prints the quatrains done into English verse by Mr Joyeo Kilmer. Tho following are four of them:— And wherefore thon should yon and I be sad Because to life no minute wo can add ? This is true wisdom, as it seems to mo,

Grief will not change the world, therefore be glad. Not always shall this convent wall us in, So cense to preach that wine and love are

am. How long shall old creeds fetter us, or new? When I am gono then let the mad world spin.

Out of the dark has boon our journeying; Life is a bead for no ono knows what string! It is tho darkness in man's soul thatspeaks, The light remains a secret silent thing. So drink! for this blue sullen vault of sky Hates our white souls and waits to watch us die. Rest on the soft green grass, my love, for soon Wo shall bo dust together, you and I. BOOK OF PIONEERING. The history of South Canterbury, from the first anpearance of the white man up to the present day, will appear shortly in book form as a souvenir of the jubilee celebrations of a year or two ago. Tho book is tho work of Mr Johannes C. Andersen, to whom it was entrusted by tho Jubilee Committee. It will come out as a quarto volume of upwards of 550 pages, with over two hundred illustrations, as well as graphs showing the progress of the provinco. Tho whole story is told in a chatty, interesting way, without the dry-as-dust detail and statistics associated with mere attempts at boosting. The volume, in fact, will be a welcome addition to the writings on early New Zealand, and it will be tho first of its kind published in New Zealand. it will include extracts from reports of the early days. Its photographs, many of which have never been published, are specially interesting. There will be a chapter on the place names and topography of the settlement. Another chapter will include a description ot the Southern Alps, and accounts of tho first attempts to climb them. Other interesting subjects will includo acclimatisation and the introduction of English birds and fish.