NEW ZEALAND BOOKS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12213, 7 March 1903, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEW ZEALAND BOOKS.

[from our own correspondent.] London, January 23. New Zealanders and their books are receiving considerable notice just now. . Mr. G. Makgill has written a tale of New Zealand in the eighteenth century, founded on fact; it is entitled " Outside and Overseas." The story is said to give a picture of the Maori race before their ancient manners and traditions were swept away. -

" Ardent affection for their colony and pride . in its resources and scenery equally inspire two New Zealand tales' Not in Fellowship,' by 'Alien,' and ' Zealandia's Guerdon,' by William S. Walker," says the Daily Mail, and the critic further remarks: " ' Alien,' obviously feminine, has more feeling than performance, while there is brisk vigour in Mr. Walker's pages. Both have a pleasant trick of description, and Mr. Walker has quite ail elaborate story to tell."

Another new book, entitled " The Lucky Shot," by E. Way Elkington, is spoken of as " a brisk New Zealand story 'full of incident and picturesquely chosen, local colour. The author clearly knows the colony well, and can spin an excellent yarn, while his description of the wilder parts of the country is lively and vivid in a marked degree." The reviewer sums up by characterising the book as " an excellent shilling's-worth of unpretending but effective story-telling." Mr. Reeves' " State Experiments" has had a lengthy notice devoted to it by an evening paper. The writer of the review, which is on the whole highly laudatory, says: —" No one in this country will be prepared to endorse all the ' State Experiments' which Australasia has tried ; but the best of them indicate more or less inevitable qualifications incident to altered conditions are allowed for—the line along which any progressive legislation at Home must proceed. Mr. Pember Reeves lias in consequence done excellent service by this clear and able exposition." . :r « - I hear that Mr. B. L. Farjeon has nearly finished a. new novel. - "