PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXX, 6 October 1936, Page 3

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED

“Barbara and the New Zealand Back Blocks,” by Mary Scott, is a collection of stories of which one critic has said, ‘‘No finer sketches oi our countryside have yet been written in New Zealand.” The stories were written between the years 1930 and 1934 (most of them by “Anon”) and therefore depict the slump conditions in the outback during 'that period. Mrs Scott not only displays great talent but obviously has a most intimate knowledge of the subject with which she deals in an absorbingly interesting manner. “Barbara” is disclosed not merely as a character, but as an institution. The writer is the author of two novels and the present perhaps more lasting sketches have been published previously in New Zealand and English papers, but produced in one volume, they are correctly described as a saga of the New Zealand countryside. They are brimful of clever descriptive studies, of well-drawn character sketches from real life, in which humour is well blended with a minor degree of pathos. This really notable contribution to New Zealand literature is published by Thomas Avery and Sons Ltd., New Plymouth. The many admirers of the works of Joseph Hocking will not want to know much about his latest novel, “Deep Calleth Unto Deep”; it will be sufficient for them to learn that this popular author’s new work has been produced in one of Hodder and Stoughton’s cheaper editions. It is ot great interest from start to finish, from the two weddings in the first chanter to the clearing up of difficulties in the last when the changing and re-chang-ing of two babies is explained, doubts are settled, and all ends happily.