BOOK NOTICE.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXVIII, Issue 8286, 15 September 1903, Page 4

BOOK NOTICE.

From Messrs Whitcombe and Tombs, the publishers, we have received a copy of a book of some 240 pages bearing the title "Bishop Harper and the Canterbury Settlement," by the Rev. H. T. Purchas, M.A. The author, in his preface, says: "I have attempted to describe the life of a good man and the working of a unique experience in colonisation. Perhaps it may do good to show that the man succeeded where the colonising machinery failed." The main purpose of the author is to tell the story of the life of Bishop Harper—his character and his work. And to the performance of his selfimposed task he has clearly applied himself with an earnestness begotten of a sincere and a laudable ambition to do justice to the memory of one whose name was not- only inefihcably associated with the early history of Canterbury, but with the growth and extension of the Episcopalian Church in New Zfaland. The result is eminent4y satisfactory. The life of the first Bishop of Christchurch and Primate of New Zealand is well told, and told, too, in a way that- comports well with the subject. The life of Bishop Harper was an eventful one, as can well be imagined from the fact that it was for the most part spent in the colony and was markde by not a few of the trials and hardships incidental to the career of a pioneer whose duty demanded of him long journeys over roadless country and across unbridged rivers. Apart altogether from the interest which naturally attaches to an outline of the career of a man who has played a conspicuous part in laying in some degree the foundations of the young nation —apart from the charm which the recital of the events of a singularly pure and earnest and unpretentious life must possess for many readers—the work before us must prove entertaining and instructive to all who peruse its pages because of the insight it gives into the early stages of colonisation and the heroic work done by the pioneers of settlement-. To the new geneftition accustomed to all the comforts and conveniences of advanced civilisation much that is set down will appear strange, but the author has contented himself with the plain, unvarnished recital of incidents, and lias not sought to heighten their effect by -word painting. Tlie "Life of Bishop Harper" has been a long tirfie in making its appearance, for nearly a decade has elapsed since he was called by death to his reward. But, though slow in coming, it is none the less welcome. It is a work that should find a place on the book-shelf of everyone who feels admiration for the man whose worthy and busy life is depicted, or who has any ambition to possess, even in a scrappy form, records of the early history of our fair colony.