"MUSINGS IN MAORILAND."

North Otago Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 6952, 30 January 1890, Page 3

"MUSINGS IN MAORILAND."

Man does not live by bread alone, nor does the measure of a country's greatness consist in the extent of its cultivated land, the density of its population, or the volume of its commerce. The manhood of a people and the things they produce 01- value most in the shape of intellectual work are in reality the highest tests in this matter. It is therefore well, at any time when this fact is in danger of being overlooked, that all and sundry should in some pleasing and suggestive way be reminded of it ; and a reminder of this kind is opportunely enough just now being given to New Zealanders. This is outcolony's jubilee year, and our Exhibition and other things have, perhaps, a tendency to make us worship our material prosperity aud resources overmuch ; hence the publication of any literary work worthy of the name must haro a peculiar appropriateness at the present time. This circumstance should secure a generouu welcome for Mr Thomas Bracken's " Musings in Maoriland"— the title under which the well-known p.»et and humorist is publishing a revised and amplified collection of his poems, together with selections from his compositions in prose. The work will bo an admirable memento of New Zealand's Jubilee. It will surpass everything else in the literary line published in the colony hitherto. The pages will number 400, and will bo post-quarto in size. Sir George Grey will supply the preface, and a historical sketch, dealing with the i development of art and letters in the colony, has been written for the volume by Sir Robert Stout. In addition to these attractions, the work will be embellished with appropriate sketches by Mrs Mair (Miss Kate Sperry) and other artists. The sketches will, we believe, be specially engraved at Nuremberg in Germany, in the exquisite style which has of Jute years won for that town a world-wide imitation. Ifc gives us great pleasure to bt, able to state that Mr Bracken's works are being published on this grand scale—a scale especially appropriate to the colony's jubilee year ; and we have no doubt that a very large number of patriotic and cultivated colonists will be equally pleased to avail themselves of the opportunity of becoming possessed of a national work of such merit and excellence as "Musings in Maoriland." Th 3 book will be supplied to subscribers only, and Mr Bracken Himself, who is uaw in Oamaru, will receive orders from all who desire to obtain it.