EEVIEWS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 8021, 5 November 1887, Page 2 (Supplement)

EEVIEWS.

Picturesque Atlas of Australasia.—EMed by Andrew Gaeean, M.A., LL.D. The Picturesque Atlas Publishing Company (Limited), Sydney and Melbourne. Parts 10 to 15. la our notice of the early parts of this admi- ! rable work we indicated at length its chief I characteristics. In point of letterpress as well as of picture and map illustrations the later numbers are quite equal to the earlier. When we had finished the account in the early numbers of the first exploration aud colonisation of Australia and the settlement of the New South Wales colony, we felt that the editor of the " Atlas," when he came to dual with later snd more fully aud ea&ily developed settlement, would find it difficult to keep up the supply of interesting description and almost thrilling narrative with which he began; but after reading the story of the foundation of Melbourne and of the development of the Victorian colony, we find it hard to say which is the more interesting— the history of New South Wales or that of Victoria. The enterprise of indivduals always makes a more engrossing narrative than that of governments or companies—and the

early history of Melbourne abounds in tales ot personal prowess and enterprise. Batman,. Kawkner, Burke, Wills, are names which willremain gr-en as long'aa Victoria retains her vitality. It i 3 wonderful to think how the few short years since they lived amongst u» have* served to invest those heroes almost with a mist ■ of antiquity, through which they loom to us(who are, strictly speaking, their contemporaries) large figures of heroic proportions. The national; lifo of Victoria has developed so rapidly—bomuch tumultuous experience has beea crowded iuto its 50 years—that its half-centurj equalscenturies of a slower and more placid expansion. Countries of an older civilisation have reftshedi their development by long and painful processes the delimitation even of their frontletsbeing a work of bloodshed. Victoria ha* not had war. In the painful kind of excitement, even New Zealand has the advantage (?) of her elder Bister. But if Victoria has not had war, she has had conflicts hardly less stirring—if iudeed they Jid not actually amount to war—when the people forcibly resisted the attempts of an incompetent Government io oppress them with vexatious legislation. Some of the most notable men in Victoria, amongst others the Speaker of the Victorian Assembly (Sir Peber Lalor),. can look back to stirring times—before the colony was old enongh to have a " Constitution," when they led the miners m arms against a sea of troubles, and experienced the patriot's fate of outlawry. But the history of Victoria,- though full of stirring incident, is in the main a record of peace, disturbed now and then by a little political conflict, or by the depredations and violence of colonial Dick Turpins. It is just 52 years ago since John Batman, with seven aborigines from Sydney, landed at- Port Phillip and proceeded to negotiate with the chiefs for the sale of a tract of country oa the Yarra. "He asked to be conveyed to the chiefs of the tribe, with whom he spent four-and-twenty hours negotiating for the purchase of a tract of their country in order to stock it with sheep and cattle. The proposition is alleged to have been agreeably received and cheerfully acquiesced in; the boundaries of . the land to be purchased were defined, and on the day following Batman and the chiefs proceeded to mark the trees at each angle of the estate of half a million acres which -was to be conveyed tothe purchaser in consideraifen of 20 pairs of blankets, 30 tomahawks, 100 knives, 50 paira of scissors, 30 looking glasses, 206handkerchief6, 1001b flour, and 6 6hirts, to be paid down at once, and an annual tribute of 100 pairs of blankets, 100 knives, 100 tomahawks, 50 suits of clothing, 50 looking glasses, 50 pahs ef scissors, and five tons of flour." Here was landsharking with a vengeance! It is satisfactory to know that the Secretary of State for the Colonies set aside this precious transaction, which would have made millionaires of Batman and his associates in return for a small expenditure of Brummagem. The "Atlas" givesno portrait of Batman, but there is a historical picture of "Batman treating with Blacks," in the foreground of which is a black sitting on his haunches and contemplating his features in one of the " thirty looking glasses." Next on the scene was John Pascoe Fawkner, the decided lines of whose face—as shown by a beautifnllyexecuted wood-cut—indicates the intelligence, native shrewdness, and self-reliance so essential to the pioneer. Fawkner, who reached the Yarra in his vessel, the Enterprise, only, two months later than Batman, brought with him & cargo of horses, pigs, dogs, farming implements, household furniture, and other necessaries for colonisation. His vessel anchored on the north bank of the stream, opposite the present customhouse in Flinders street. To those familiar with Melbourne as it is now, it may be interesting to know how it presented itself to Fawkner in August 1835: —" It waa in the early spring, and the scene which presented itself to-the eyes of the newcomers was a charming one. The land rose in a series of gentle undnlationg to th& northward of the river, andjwas as lightly timbered as the pleasure grounds of a country mansion in England. Freshened by the winter rains, the green sward was vividly verdant; and in the far distance ranges of purple mountains lifted their massive outlines to the north and east against the stainless azure of ths sky. . The banks of the Yarra were fringed wit 6 feathery scrub, and the stream itself, as yet untainted by the sewage of a. populous city, glided downward to the sea in its pristine freshness and purity.'*

The excellence of the illustrations and of the" maps, as well as the interest of the narratiye, fulfil the promise of the early number. The illustrations are all good, and many of them exceptionally so. In the case of portraits of bygone celebrities, one cannot tell whether the liknesses'are or are not good. Bat one feels in looking at the admirably executed engravings of such portraits as tho6e of Burke, Wills, King, and Sir Henry Barkly, that faces so full of character could hardly be other than good likenesses; and the correct portrait of the Marquis of Normanby, whom we have Been, is & sort of guarantee for the correctness of the others. Some of the landscape engraving iff very beautiful. We can only select a ievr cuts for special mention. One, of the finest piscea of work in the " Atlas," so far, is the frontiapiece of part 11—Cape Schank —where the sharp outline of the craggy cape stands prominently out between a cloudy moonlit sky and the breakers that lick the bottom of the cliff. "Wilson's Promontory" is another fine sea--1 scape of the same kind, but less sombre in complexion. Of inland landscapes, one in part 12— " The Upper Murray and Mount Dargal"—is executed with much delicacy and grace. In the foreground is the infant river—looking like 'a rush-bordered lagoon: m the middle distance, ft. suggestive 6trip of bush; and in the background, softly-outlined mountains, ascending in the distance to the snow line—with a serenity of atmosphere over the whole which is to be found only in such climates as that of Victoria. Ths " Erskine Falls, Lome," is a fine piece of beulder and waterfall scenery. The architectural pictures, mostly of Melbourne public buildings, if they are less charming as pictures, have an interest of their own, and are often accompanied in the letterpress by instructive criticism and description of the architectural style of the building represented. Then there are interesting sketches of Victorian!: industrial life — "The Portland Cray-fishery," "A Colac Rabbittrapper," and others. Ons of the prettiest pieces of illustration in the " You Yangs Atlas " is a little harvest vignette called "Near the You Yangs," in part 14.

The maps are large, distinct, and at the same time full. There is a general map of Victoria, a map showing rainfall in Victoria, and a railway and postal map of Victoria and of New South Wales.

The World Went Very Well Then. By Walteb Besant. —Melbourne : George Robertson

and Co. Dunedin: Joseph Braithwaite.

This is an illustrated yellow-back edition of Mr Besant's latest novel—a special Australian edition, published by special arrangement with the proprietors of the English copyright. The story, which first appeared as a serial in the Illustrated London News, is one of those studies of the past which we occasionally have from Mr Besant's pen—a study largely of Georgian London. Whilst allowing that the author has put; into this book much good and clever writing, and that he has admirably caught the tone of his period, we cannot think that readers generally will find this one of Mr Besant's most interesting books. Jack Easterbrook, the hero, begins well—up to a certain point he carries oar sympathies with him; but ai that point he behaves so unaccountably, and so unlike himself, that one gets first puzzled and then disappointed. The two best characters in the book are Brinjes, the old apothecary, and Bess, Jack's very plebeian sweetheart. Mr Besanfc sometimes Xakea a long time in getting fairly into his story, and in this book his introductory chapters are more than ordinarily long-winded. The title too is very whimsical and, to say the least, awkward. There is nothing in the title appropriate to the contents of the book except the; suggestion that the story deals with a bygone time; and after reading the story one is forced to the conclusion that even then the world might have gone a great deal better and yet leave room for improvement.