A LITERARY CORNER.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 8734, 16 May 1914, Page 9

A LITERARY CORNER.

LEdited by 11.L.8J “THE WILDS Ob’ MAOHILAND.” In a list of now and forthcoming books to 'hand from .Macmillan, and Co., London, tbo following notes arc (supplied descriptive of “Tho Wilds of. t^^aori^and,’ , by Dr James Macimosn ’Jell.

“It was my good fortune,” states tho author in his introduction to this interesting and instructive book, “to (be for six years Director of New Zealand's Geological .Survey, and during these yeans of almost . constant travel my work and tho love of exploration jlsd mo into many but little visited corners of this wonderful country. . .

It is with the hope of encouraging -strangers to New Zealand’s shores to (visit not only ite prosperous towns,/ •its fertile dairy farms, and widespread sheep and cattle stations, but 'also to wander far from these haunts 'of man into regions where the Maori, jthough weakened, still pursues the Ways of his fathers; to penetrate into great foi'cets where the shill cry of lid ’.kiwi is heard at dusk; or to range over- Alpine passes where landscapes Jof matchless splendour unfold _ thorn(selves -with the rising run ; it is w ill) Ithis hope that I make hold to string ’together a number of disconnected accounts of journeys made at divers times into the Now Zealand wilds. . . i “As I write,” ho goes on to say,; ’“‘tboro comes to me a great strong yearning to be astride onco more my trusted pony and scamper close to the groat white breakers along the hard Biind-bcaches near the North Cape; to smell tho smoke of the rata-wood firo beneath tho shade of a giant rimu In the Urewera; to see tho sun set in brilliant splendour over tho fussockcovered highlands on tho plateau oi .Mount Arthur; to hear the crunch of |iho hard snow beneath my feet on tho enowfields above Franz Joseph Glacier ; to look upon tho giant peak of Anrangi emerging roseate from the jurists of morning, and to see the hazy slopes and white crests of the seaward' (Raikouras, rising majestically above: \the blue Pacific. Again comes the 1 longing for tho joys of tho camp by l /some mountain streamlet after a day (of trudging; for the enraptured interest in the stories round tho oarop (fire; for the deep sloop on a soft bed ,of sweet-smelling manuka houghs, and (for tho awakening in tho early morning to the joyous, nover-to-be-forgot-'ton note of .the tui.” !• The various chapters are designated (■—From Wlhangaroa to tho North

Cape; Rambles in tbe Hanxaki Goldfields; Mayor Island; Among the Volcanoes; Through tho Urewera Country; Tho Wilds of Kai-amea; Tho Heart of tho Southern Alps;. The Groat - Douglas Glacier; The Geography -and Climate of Now Zealand. ' Over seventy illustrations in block ‘and white, eight in colour, and sev-'cra-l maps, add to -the attraction of the volume. ABORT “OHIDA.” Curious interest attaches to a memoir (by Miss Elizabeth Lee) ot “Guida.,” the novelist, whose audacities shocked tho last generation, but whose work might now pass as tamo stuff. Louisa de la Ramee ended her nfe in tragic destitution only a few years ago, hut she had had her days of h;gh romance. Romance of a sort watched over her cradle, for sho was the daughter of a mysterious Frenchman, who taught his native tongue in the schools or Bury St. Edmunds, but used to vanish for months at a time, and was conjectured to be a secret agent. We are told that the lean, lanky girl in a crinoline, presently to be known as “Ouida,” was a politician at' twelve. At fourteen she wrote a history of England, and fell in love, not once, but as often as the tinder of her heart was enkindled by the faintest spark of masculine kindness. By the middle “sixties” her earliest novels, “Chandos,” “Strathmore,” etc., had set her on the< road to fa mo. In reply to remonstrances, her boast was that sho wrote not for women, but for “les militaires,”

Tongues even in ’65 began to wag over the dangerous young person. It was whispered (says “The Times”) that she was none other than the scandalous Miss Evans, tho author of “Adam Bode,” whose death, “Ouida” said long afterwards, had left only one novelist capable of writing good English. Her mother inquired in vain tho name of the husband who had divorced Louise. Louise herself lived on in an ever-increasing blaze of splendour and notoriety. She gave dinner parties to officers and gentlemen who were invited to talk “au naturel”; and thus, like the Claimant, thoir vivacious, exacting hostess picked up of an evening what she could put to signal use next day. Later in life, when these dashing parties at tho Langham Hotel were brilliancies of the past, Mr Henry James, who, like Ruskin, paid willing tribute to “Ouida.’s” ardent love of Italy, gave .a somewhat acidulated account of her personality:—“She was curious, in a common, little way .

of a most uppish or dauntless little spirit of arrogance and independence . . . . -a little terrible, and finally pathetic, grotesque.” In her heyday, however, “Ouida’s” grotesquenoss seemed not at all pathetic. Literary celebrities flocked to meet her, and were often tartly treated. Whyte Melville found “Puck” “a first-rate, first-class, first-flight novel” ; Tx>rd Lytton commended her delicate grace of style; great artists paid “homage” to “Ariadne.” She sunned herself in adulation. She gowned her mother in black for foil to her bright satins. Half Florence —but not more than half—was at her feet. AVilliam Allingham described her in his diary as “dressed in green silk, with a clever, sinister face, her hair down, small hands and feet, and a voice like a carving knife.” Twenty years later ns pungent an observer was impressed by her “tallowy skin, her straight black hair, red nose, hor decolctte gown of blue glistening silk, covered with lace resembling a curtain, the skirt very short to display her beautiful feet, cased in blue satin shoes.” Her extravagance was a byword. Sho had a noble contempt for money, and was always at her wits’ end to obtain it. Sbo fed her infatuated dogs on truffles, and squandered the rest of her income on litigation. She even went to law against her lawyer. Her vanity was as naive as it was magnificent. "My fame, my power,” exclaimed this “idol of the great world” —and to her publisher; though sho had sagacity enough' to perceive that she was probably merely a passing fashion—as transitory an object of worship as the golden calf. “I think yon will find ‘Tho Massarones’ worth ItlOO Trilbys.” “Keep rnv book at tbe bend of your advertisement. You have nothing to equal it,”

GOVERNOR MACQUARIE IN FICTION. How capital a story can bo written (round the early days of Australia is demonstrated bv Don Delaney m A Rebel of the Rush” (Now South Wales Bookstall Co.). Tho author (gives an intimate picture of tho little colony under Governor Macquarie. Tho niece of one of tho Governors aides-de-camp fails in love with the Sin. of a. free settler on the Ilawkcsbury —much to tho annoyance of a Captain Cartwright. The young farmer, however, learns that ho is only p foster son. and that his parents are unknown to tho good people who hadi cared for him since ho was a babe.i Ho loaves home, only to bo robbed and implicated in crime in a sly-grog •shop. Captain Cartwright delights in 1 hunting him through several chapters' ■of exciting incidents. The story of ,tho Bathurst insurrection is told, and la vivid account of the “battle” of jA’ocrcrombie is given. Tho story con-' 'clndes with an intensely dramatic, trial. LITERARY GOSSIP. Mr M. H. Beer, who was for a long ■time the London, correspondent of tho ■ German “Vonvacrts,” is writing a “History of English Socialism.” The; first volume takes the subject up toi (the end of Chartism, and deals with/ mediaeval communism, tho commun-j ists of the Civil War, and'tho further developments of tho movement to the close of tho period. Messrs Bell have it nearly ready. Another volume of sociological interest by a German writer which the' Earn© publishers have in preparation for issue this spring is “Toynbee Hall and tho English Settlement Movement.” Tho author is Dr Werner Picht.

Dr Leslie Mackenzie, the Medical Member of the Scottish Local Government Board, has written an introduction to a translation of Professor Sigismund Freud’s monograph “On Dreams,” which Mr Heinenxann will shortly publish. It is the author’s conclusion that dreams and their interpretation in a scientific sense indicate the royal road to tho investigation of tho unconscious element in mental life. Lord Charles Boresford.’s autobiography, entitled “A Sailor’s Life.” is about to be published in two illustrated volumes, under the editorship of Mr L. Cope Cornford. An account is included ot Lord Charles’s recollections of the Egyptian war and the Sudan 'campaign, and several chapters are devoted to his sporting memories. There is also an introductory note by the editor on the house of Beresford. Mr Heinemann has in hand another book by the author of the “Montessori Method.” It is intended as a practical explanation and handbook for teachers and parents, and is to be called “The Montessori Manual.” He is also issuing a book on “The Cbassevant Method of Musical Education,” which is said to do for tho ear what the Montessori system does for touch and sight. Mademoiselle Chassevant is a teacher at the Geneva Conservatoire, and she claims to have developed a method by which children may not only be taught to sing, but can often at the age of seven read music at sight in various keys, write down notes and intervals as they hear them, and transpose without hesitation. Her lessons, which are disguised as fairy stories, havo been adapted for English children by Miss Marian Gibb. BOOKS RECEIVED. “An Enemy Hath Done This.” by Joseph Hocking (Ward, Lock and Co., per S. and IV. Maclcay. Wellington). )‘Mai Logan,” by Paul Trent (Ward, Lock and Co., per S. and W. “The Story-Teller” for May (Cassell and Co., per S. and W. Mackay).