BOOKS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 9391, 2 April 1892, Page 6 (Supplement)

BOOKS.

1 Stniys of the South. By John Bernahd O'Haha, • M. A.—London: Ward, Lock, and Co. Runedin: Wise, Cutnit, and Co. j Gauging n hitherto unknown pout is in some prospects, indelicate as it may seem to say i rso, like valuing a hovse. You must first look ; in his mouth: so much depends on his age. These same "Songs of the South," if they nvo -the work of a young man, are very well; •though to tell the truth they read more like the work of a promising young woman. On the j other hand, if they are written by a mature person, and represent the best thought and ' expression he is master of, they arc not in any ij way remarkable. Wo judge the poems, how- ! <€yer, on the supposition that they are the trial flights of a young poet, and regarded iii this light they are distinctly promising. The narrow range of the poems suggests a limited •experience, but there is a very manifest feeling for what is good and beautiful iv nature and humanity. Most of the pieces are of theWnd that may be described as "scenic." The ; Victorian landscape and manner of life are painted with a feeling that amounts to | affection, and to natives of Victoria or to | "those who have been long resident in that colony anauy of the pieces will be very agreeable reading. The versification shows a good deal of variety, though to our thinking it is just a trillo jingly. One of the chief merits of the writer is his very complete command of rhymes, hut it is a virtue that leans to vice's side: he overdoes it sometimes. The poem we like best is that called " A Christmas Tryst," though even here we feel that sometimes there is a little more rhyme than reason. It is in the measure of Tennyson's "Amphion"—a measure perhaps a little too pert and tripping for the sad subject of the poem. But altogether it is a graceful little bit of verse. " The Keturn of Spring" is full of genuine enjoyment of nature in her young season. The moralising strain, however, introduced in the fifth and sixth verses is sufficiently vapid and commonplace to damn better verses than these. This poet has, we believe, the distinction of being the first to make use of the word " sarsaparilla" in serious verse. True, the achievement is somewhat maimed by an elision which the poet finds necessary ; but there it is— What though I love the daisy bright, The honeysuckle fair, 1 he fields with dandelion dight, The wattle's yellow hair, The aars'parilla's sapphire hue, Ac, &c. And why should not tho poet constrain sarsaparilla to his uses, or ipecacuanha either for that matter ? The little volume closes with a .graceful paraphrase- of one of Horace's odes:

A First Family of Sasajara. By Bket Harte. Macmillan's ■ Colonial Library. Dunedin - Wise, Cafnn, and Co.; J. Braithwaite. This story has all the author's quality in it— though it is only another variation of a tune that Bret Harte has played many times already. Daniel Harcourt's daughters are very cleverly sketched characters—the elder especially, of whom we see most. How the very cartilaginous Lige Curtiss acquired the distinctly osseous backbone which enabled him in later life to hold his own against the world seems to want explanation. We do not think that this has quite the consistency tha.t Bret Harto's characters usually have. The story is very well worth reading, however. Those who look for the bits of farwest local colour so delightfully executed by this author will not be disappointed.

The Loyal'st Husband; or, Till Death us Sever. By J. Lothian Rousoif.—London: Simpkin, ; Marshall, and Co. Dunedin: James Horsburgh. This novel seems to have impressed various ■critics variously. With much ingenuousness the publisher appends a couple of double column | pages of press notices, one column favourable , the other unfavourable. The Saturday Review i describes the novel as a story " that is as revolting as it is silly," whilst the Christian World thinks that the book presents "a delicate subject delicately handled." Every one to his taste. We have not ourselves been impressed -with the delicacy of the handling: though on the other hand we think the Saturday Review is needlessly severe in its estimate. We cannot say that we think the book is a wholesome book, but we believe the author means well, though what he means exactly it is not always easy to understand. Fortunately we have two prefaces, and sometimes a preface reveals something of an author's aspirations and intentions. In one of his prefaces Mr Robson informs us that the book "was not composed for the benefit of our young maidens." We are not quite so foolish as to demand that every book shall be measured by its fitness for perusal by young girls. A book may be written for a very noble purpose and yet not be fit reading for them. All the same the influence of the "young maiden "on English fiction has been very great and, on the whole,, very wholesome ; and it behoves a novelist to ponder well before he writes a book that must be forbidden to her; for it is a very difficult thing nowadays to have an index expurqatorius for girls. In his preface to the second' edition Mr Kobsou tells us that his book "is an earnest appeal to all thinking persons against a great evil, in favour of a mighty remedy. It was conceived with set purpose, it was the outcome of patient labour and deep thought, it is the fruit of a matured heart and brain; there is hardly a. sentence in it but has been separately weighed and considered." The book is avowedly a novel with a purpose, and therefore the first question to ask is, "What does it prove?" -. and for the life of us we cannot say—after having read the book very attentively and with, a good deal of interest—what particular thing the author thinks he has proved. It seems to us that he proves several things, amongst others that a man may seduce the wife of his bosom friend and be a very good fellow afbei all. Let him say to his friend— " My dear fellow, she loves me and she doesn't love you : I have run away with her: get your divorce; I wi!l marry her; and there we are all as light and tight as can be." The friend may not acquiesce : probably he will not • but instead of laying his horse-whip about the . traitor's body till he has reduced him to a pulp he will proceed to argue with his false friend fand; then quickly take his wife home again. Another thing that may be considered proved bjf this book is that there is no more cruel bn-.te.-in creation than your perfectly immaculate Husband who has a not immaculate wife-wtom he is determined to protect against herseS_ ESirtber, it is proved by this book that the meanest and most inhuman part of the commuaity are the virtuous married women. Give thesi a frail sister to worry, and they Wili proceed to the work with the appetite and unerring instinct of she-wolves. It is not that they taboo the- erring one -hold up their skirts and their noses, and pass as far to the windward as possifele. That is, of course, all very proper—a ngceous "tapu"of this kind being the only fortress, that virtue has in which to entrench herself.. But, according to Mr Robson, the virtuous married women do uot remain satisfied with this sending to Coventry Indeed they do not, strictly speaking, send the wretch to Coventry at all. After inventing all manner or petty lies, magnifying the misdemeanours of the delinquent fiftyfold, they hunt her in packs pursue her to her own drawing room, talk at her, sneer at her, and, figuratively speaking, leave the marks of all their ten claws upon her j It the average virtuous married woman is the i uncharitable, cold-blooded, pitiless, scandalimongring, lying wretch represented in this took, then, commend us to the mercies of a Tirftae less severe. We suspect, however, that wtafc the author really wishes to prove is the wrongness of divorce and of re-marriasre after divorce. Not that he does prove it half so conclusively as he proves the want of humanity and principle in virtuous married woman or the brutality of the extra conscientious husband. But he desires to prove it. The hero of the book refuses to divorce his erring wife-. He carries her away after she has been three days with her seducer He shuts her up for several years in a convent At length he brings her home again, and when she has run the gauntlet of all the merciless usage the virtuous women provide for her, she regains her lost footing and becomes the happy and respected mother of a large family. The history of this woman seems to us in its main outline credible enough : but it is so evidently an exceptional case, that it ought to have the force of an exception, and be held to prove the rule—that the proper adjustment of such matrimonial troubles is that which the law has provided, divorce and remarriage. We feel bound further to protest against the "Ruth" incident wantonly introduced at the end of the book. It seems to us quite uncalled for, and serves to justify the Saturday Review's epithets of "revolting" and " nauseous." In execution the novel has many f-aidts, but the evolution of Marjories character and history shews very considerable creative power r and makes the whole book well worth reading".

The Practice of the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal ef New Zealand. By Sir Rohfrt Stou£ K.C.M..G., and Wi,u.«r A LE x™ &im, Barristers .and Solicitors of the Supreme Court.—James Horsburgh, Publisher, Duneum. _ This is a book w.ritteu, printed, and published in Duneclm, and we are glad to say it is a credit to all concerned in its production. The get-up of the work is excellent, and, considering the| limited area and extent of the demand for such a book, we think the solicitors of New Zealand have reason to be thankful that someone has been found of sufficient enterprise to carry out such an undertaking in such excellent styiG. We have taken ±he trouble to make ourselves sufficiently w.ell acquainted with the character and contents of the book to enable 'us to form an opinion as to the manner in which the authors have carried out their work The plan is that which has proved itself so convenient, in Wilson's "Judicature Acts and Rules," and been followed in Pennefathcand Brown's " Code of Civil Procedure " At the time of the publication of Pennefather and Brown s book our now system of procedure and pleading had been only about two years in use, iif tW^nr ! l' nj° "~- < 1 :o"s"ll' rubl<! n»ml)er ported. clucidatm^W^ly'ms'the n^.v acts and rules; and it j- m ,lispara S nmeut jpf 1-ennefutb.er nml Brow,- < t , say t ij at &<. new

work is a groat improvement upon theirs. All the decisions up to date of publication have, we believe, been referred to in their appropriate places. We find also that the most important English decisions on analogous rules up to date of publication have been cited and their general effect stated. Such a book must be an enormous saving of labour to solicitors, to say nothing of the risks of mistake which its use will enable them to avoid in dealing with a code of procedure which, in many points differs from tho English Judicature Rules. We have tested the book, and are in a position to say that its accuracy can be relied on, and that is the main point in such a work. The notes are not mere citations of cases, but rather short monographs, and practitioners having occasion to uso it will ho agreeably surprised to lind how much useful information has been compressed into so little space. In particular, womaydirmt nUn.ntion to the valuable monographic notes on suuu subjects as interrogatories, set-off, and counter claim, and what are called in the code " Extraordinary Kennedies."

Ik the introduction the learned authors give a short but very interesting and useful historical sketch of the constitution, practice, and procedure of our Supreme Court. We quote the concluding paragraph, as it is of general interest: —" AVhat, it may be asked, hasbeen the effect of the new code of procedure ? The volume of litigation has certainly not decreased but disputes are now settled with more promptitude than was the case under the old system of procedure. There have been fewer new trials than formerly—in fact, a new trial is now a rare event. Whenever it appears in an action that the questions in issue are mixed questions of fact and law the parties usually prefer to leave their decision to the judge without the aid of a jury. Litigants have not now the same fear of embarking on a Supremo Court action as they formerly had. This change of feeling has, no doubt, been mainly brought about by having the costs fixed, the procedure simplified, the time spent in litigation lessened, and finality sooner obtained. On the whole, the code has worked well, although, no doubt, there are many small defects that require to be amended." Testimony such as this as to the efficiency of our Supreme Court and its system of procedure, coming from such competent authorities, is no less gratifying than we believe it to be correct.