BOOKS OF THE DAY

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 7871, 5 August 1911, Page 12

BOOKS OF THE DAY

(BY -LIBER.") SUNNY AUSTRALIA Archibald Marshall, some of whose novels—uotublv "t'eter Dinney. linder«raduato," •"i'lK- House of Morrilees." /mil "Kxtoii Manor"—wero all much ;ihtjve the ordinary ruck of latter-day iiciiou. visited Australia about a couple of years ago. and spent sumo six or wveii months in the Commonwealth, recording his experiences in a series of articles contributed to London "Daily Mail." These articles, revised and with considerable additions, are now republished under the alluring title of "Sunny Australia" (London: Dodder aud Stoughton; Wellington: S. and \V. Mackuy). The result is a book which, if it contains nothing that is particularly, novel, make* very pleasant reading. 51 r Marshall evidently had a remarkably good time in Australia, indeed he ' had so good a timo that he frankly admits the ir.ost notable feature about Australia is Australian hospitality. Ho was, qt course, as ho puts it, "properly introduced," and the result was that Australians seemed to tumble over each other in one wild rush to bo kind to him. Ho says:

Tfc i« just possible that X may have boon, the vicitiin of a gigantic confrpLracy. Tho thousand or so inhabitants of the country whom 1 met in the ocnirso of my travels may have got together while I was on the way out, and said: "Now, this person, is coming here to write about us. and for our own sakea wo had letter give him the time of his life. Tot ns make him a member of all onr chibs, invite him to all our houses, take Kim about in. all our motor cars,, give B him dinners and luncheons and dances and picnics, and as many drinks as he can oonTenionbly shallow in a climate which wo must admit is a little on. the ■warm side; lot us talk to him about the things ho wants to talk about; lot us, in fact, treat him as a man and a brother, and then, perhaps, he will let us alone."

And that they did treat the ■ -visitor well is mads evident in every chapter ol •tho book. From Queensland round to Western Australia, in Sydney, Melbourne, and tho other bis cities, whcrcoyor ho wont. Me Marshall seems tc have aeon only tho rosier sido 'of Aus tralian life. Ho appears to have been a special favourite 'with the squatto cracy. of whom, as a class, ho has more to say than X remember reading in any book on Australia these many years ■past. Ho waxes enthusiastic over their palatial homes, their enormous Hocks and herds, their overflowing hospitality; he laments— although he appears to admit tho necessity of it—tho compulsory division of tho great pastoral properties; he praises the intelligence displayed in tho management of the big runs, he sympathises—mildly—with the capitalists in their troubles with organised labour. But tho trouble is that there are a great many other people in Australia besides tho squatters and a groat many interests outsido tho pastoral interest. 1 miss, for instance, any detailed and careful account of how the small ‘'selectors” live, and although certain attention is paid to irrigation, to tho sugar and mining industries, the information given is rather scrappy. Whatever faults r’ostcr Fraser’s book had—and they were not a few—that very pretentious person did at least endeavour to give his readers some idea of tho commercial and Industrial position and progress of tho Commonwealth. Hr Marshall has practically nothing to say on any of the great political and social problems with which Australia is confronted. Ho is far too busy recording how well Mr Jumbuck "did" him at Burrangoobah Station. or describing tho magnificent - residence of Mr Eamshorn, of Wirrambildoroo, to have much time or space left to givo even the briefest account of Australia’s leading statesmen, of tho State and Federal legislatures, of tho teeming activities of Melbourne and Sydney. True, ho devotes a chapter to the shearers, of whom ho writes very sensibly, and his accounts of’Mildura and tho South Australian wheat region aro agreeably informative. Mainly, however,. ho concerns himself with writing of the people he mot and of tho homes ho visited. And very pleasant people and homes they must havo been, judging by the enthusiasm with which they aro described. Tho warmth of Mr Marshall’s reception, ’as tho representative of a London daily journal, has by this time, i have no doubt, been a subject of envious comment' in Fleet street, at the Savage and Press Clubs, and other journalistic haunts. Certain it ' is that if any Englishman who knows Australia only through tho medium of Mr Marshall’s book may bo pardoned if bo thinks that “down under" aro tho most gonial, woll-to-do, friendly and marvellously hospitable people that tho Empire contains. Ho would not bo far wrong if ha did think so, hut all Australian life is not rose-coloured, and it is more than possible that Mr Marshall’s book' may bo responsible—by reason of its omissions—for some very erroneous ideas of Australia as a whole being formulated in tho British mind. I am not going to quote from the book, which, within its limitations, is a very agreeably written and entertaining work, but thoro is ono pleasant feature about it which deserves special mention and approval. That is tho utter absence ot any suggestion of patronage, or “superior person" attitude. Mr Marshall is bo shrewd observer that I cannot pardon him Ids avoidance of many subjects with which the hook—to givo a wide, deep, and true picture of Australian life —should havo dealt—it is only fair to the author that he describes his work as a aeries of “impressions”—but what he says about tho free open life of tho Australian, his ardent patriotism, his freedom from caste and snobbery; his essential manliness and independence of character and outlook, upon l life, makes mightily .pleasant reading to all who know what- a really good fellow is tho best and truest stamp of Australian. As for the Australian women—well. I must not bo tempted to quote Mr Marshall's sulogies. Tho volume contains a number of excellent illustrations, from photographs, also a characteristically genial introduction by Sir George Reid. The price is 3s Gd. MISCELLANEOUS A Coronation Souvenir. One of tho most attractive and. as a work of reference, one of the most valuable publications for which the Coronation has been responsible, is a stout but comely little tome, entitled "Crown and Realm” —a "lleview of tho British Empire and its Builders,” which has been issued bv the great drug manufacturing firm’ of Burroughs. Wellooiuo and CoLondon. It'includes a wonderfully interesting picture gallery of historical scenes, portraits of royalties past and present, etc., but it is at thn same time an Imperial Gazetteer, every state and dependency of the Empire, however

small, being' described. Tor the collection of portraits of governors, xiremiers, and high officials generally, of tlic Overseas Dominions, the book is well worth possessing. A largo, but not the largest section of the work, is devoted to mi account of the origin, modes of manufacture, qualities and uses of the thousand and one drugs sold by Messrs Burroughs. Wellcome and Co. A description of the firm’s works, their workmen’s homes, social halls, etc., is by no means the least interesting feature of an admirable publication, for the beautiful typography and tasteful get-up generally of which those responsible for tin* mechanical production of the volume deservo the highest credit. The Church and Divorce, Mr Murray has republished, in a handy volume (xn-ice Is;, a number of xiax>ers, bearing the general title of “The (Question of Divorce/’ written by the Bishop ol Birmingham for the Birmingham Diocesan Magazine. Bishop Gore’s papers embody a series of arguments against the civil law of divorce being recognised by the Church of which ho i ! so distinguished a prelate. The bishop points put that ho has revised, and, to a certain extent, retracted “the arguments used and conclusions reached" by him some fifteen years ago on fho question* of divorce. At that time lie says he was “disposed to give the preference, among the versions of Our Lord’s teaching on marriage given in the New* Testament j to the versions given in the Gospel according to St. Matthew, which contain an aimarently making marriage dissoluble uruler certain circumstances." He now, however, feels

'‘bound to give the .preference to the earlier versions given by St. Paul, St. Mark, and St. Luke, and to regard the exceptive clauses in the First Gospel as probably interpolated glosses which really misinterpret tho original utterances.'" The Bishop is most strenuously opposed to tho present divorce law of Great Britain, and states tho reasons for such opposition, if not exactly with warmth, at least in the plainest possible terms. As an expression of tho extreme ecclesiastical point of view on a much discussed question his book is one of considerable interest to churchmen and laymen alike. *

“Tho Beliefs of Unbelief.” “Studies in tho Alternatives to Faith” is tho secondary title of “The Beliefs of Unbelief,” by W. H. Fltchett, the well-known Victorian clergyman and author, whose “Deeds That Won tho Empire" is such a well-known and mnehesteomod historical work. “The Beliefs of Unbelief" (Cassell and Co.; Wellington: S. and W. Maokay) was first published in 1908, and the cony before me is a new and popular edition dated 19X1. The author says: “We cannot exist on negatives. The business of tho sane and honest intellect is to look at each doubt in turn as a positive-creed; to try its evidences as those of Christianity are tried; to cast its difficulties into the same scales with the difficulties, of. Christianity; and then to extract from the whole process a sane law of conduct.” Such a “sane law of conduct” tho author asserts, in conclusion, “will assuredly bo found to run in tho same path tho feet of Christ, and of all tho saints of all the ages since Christ came, have trodden: Tho three sectional headings of tho book, to tho detailed contents of which, following my customary rule with, theological works, I do not refer, are “God,” “The Alternatives to Belief in Christ,” and “Tho Bible.” Needless to say, tho author writes clearly and well and his work cannot fail to bo of the deepest interest to all who are students of Christian evidences.