SOUTH SEA BABBLES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18771, 26 July 1924, Page 4 (Supplement)

SOUTH SEA BABBLES.

nv')-''':, ; ' v - ,: ". : - : "".'"'.C- '~ : ':'*a*r —: —i" — ■'■• : "It's no use, old n-.anj; a South Sea yarn must either deal with a white man (preferably a Scotsmen) jriasqu»rading asr a nigger, marrying the king's prettiest ~ daughter . . .- or with the still older iclsa of a marooned mariner'l finding bourid- ■ Üba wealth in; a cave.'and (getting rescued in the last chapter.";''..' Such, at any rate, was the opinion of one of the -characters lit " Uncharted Waters" (Heinemann) by Ralph Stock. Yet the author of thiii collection of South Sea tales manages pi;Btty well with- .•;'■■•:■'•'. out having recourse to either of these well-worn themes. " . -; ' All; the stones are competently con-1 ~:■■ strhcted and neatly told. ; A cortain dry j humour is observable throughout, and a j restraint; which forbids any over-colouring! of an already highly-coloured setting. j *■ He. has no.jneroy upon the. kind of. man that expects to find romance ready-iiiade in the South, Seas, s Of one such he says, " He had read Louis B.iecke, and had come V- ':.;. to the; island with (five hundred pounds to go in for trading midst swaying pajms, mnrmuring reofs and shimmering seas; and the palms had swayed, the reefs murmured to .«uch *-ffect that at the end of two months his -■■ cutter mighthave been seen (through the • window of a'divmg'htjlmet) neatly tucked • aiiiray under twelve foet of slielving coral, J with multi-coloured; fishplaying hide-aud-Sjeok round three ; sacksof: water-logged isppra. and a. safe containing ;,clnei pound ;_ s fihillings;and sixpence 'in silver."