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Free Lance, Volume XVII, Issue 916, 1 February 1918, Page 9

"A Venture in Verse" is the title of the modest little booklet with which Miss Marjory Nicholls, of Wellington (daughter of Mr. H. G. Nicholls, of the Wellington Harbour Board) makes her debut upon the stage of authorship. The. 34 fugitive lyrics which are thus assembled have in maony eases appeared in "The Spike" (Victoria College) or "The Repoi-ter," and one is reprinted from the New Zealand Fbee Lance, but one and all have that rare distinction which Mr. S. Eichelbaum notes in his "Foreword" of "a freshness and thoughtfulness without which all verse is but body 1 without spirit." Miss Marjory Nicholls has poetic gifts of no mean order. Her verse flows in melodious numbers, and she uses various metres with equal grace and ease. She has a bright imagination, andTher language is copious and choice, and the thoughts, musings, and fancies to which she gives apt expression cover a wide range of scenes and subjects. We heartiy commend this dainty little volume of verse to* the notice of our readers far and wide. * ' •» •» © One. of the Wellington boys who left with the last Reinforcements for the Front, writing home to his people, turns the limelight on to the soldiers while they were engaged at close grips with their first enemy, Sea-sickness. "Cheer Oh," called out one valiant warrior to his suffering 'mates, "the first five years are the worst." "Sit down, for heaven's sake," was the agonised response, "don't you see you're, rocking the boat." Another Wellingtonian, noticing a pal hanging like grim-death on to the ship's side with his head over the rail, touches him on the shoulder with the cheerful advice, "Get out on the soil, young man." Finally, a third militaire, who has heaved everything overboard, recovers ' sufficiently to propound the bald-headed conundrum, "What makes the sea green?" A chum, still torn by internal disturbance, feebly answers: "I dunno, old chap, but I've done my bally share of it."