ARTHUR H. ADAMS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22824, 7 March 1936, Page 4

ARTHUR H. ADAMS

By 0. R. Aixew.

The habit of mind which prompts one to set the authors of a country into groups is not to he commended. Nevertheless, one persists in this habit. Amber Reeves and Arthur H. Adams, though their respective performances differ so widely, are nevertheless children of their periods. One notes the influence of H. G. Wells in Amber Reeves's novel, "The Reward of Virtue." One notes the influence of Bernard Shaw in Arthur H. Adams's play, "Mrs Pretty and the Premier." Both these writers were born in New Zealand before the emergence of the country from the colonising stage, which was bo admirably portrayed, both in prose and verse, by Amber Reeves's father, W. P. Reeves. Both writers respond to those potent influences which were making themselves felt in New Zealand in " The Nineties."

"Mrs Pretty and the Premier," produced at a West End theatre in London, was published along with two other plays, "Galahad Jones" being one of them. In his preface to this collection, which was brought out in the war period, Arthur H. Adams claims for his work that it is written with a view to production under the conditions that are now rendered so familiar to ua by the repertory societies and other bodies which have recently come into existence. Arthur Adams was, it will hardly be questioned, one of the pioneers in the fight for the establishment of an indigenous Australian drama, and what an uphill fight it has been! The stage directions accompanying the text of "Mrs Pretty and the Premier" are in the true Shavian manner. Sir James Barrie is rather more arch in the comments he appends to the library editions of his plays—comments which we could well spare, as the plays are quite clever enough in themselves to stand on their own merits. Shaw's exegesis is more apt, and, as has been suggested above, Arthur Adams was consciously or unconsciously a disciple of Shaw. News of his death will be received with genuine regret, for he was one of the few men who gave evidence of a iaith in the literary possibilities of his country at a time when the conventional New Zealander dismissed New Zealand poetry with a tolerant citation of Thomas Bracken and New Zealand, fiction with a somewhat vague reference to Fergus Hume. Arthur Adams, so far as one is able to judge of hia performance, had an infinite capacity for taking pains. It does not always follow that this capacity connotes gonitis. Of his novel "Tussock Land" others must say the last word. So far as one can recall "The Nazarene," it is a conventional thought expressed in a somewhat conventional manner. It belongs in date to the period when the poetry of Stephen Phillips had a considerable vogue. The obscurity in which Stephen Phillips has fallen is not due to bad craftsmanship but to his outlook upon life. "Tapu" produced by the Pollard Opera Company somewhere in the first decade of the present century, with music by Alfred Hill, illustrates that same quality in Adams which marks the outstanding quality of his work. Here was a libretto in tho Gilbert manner proffered at a time when the Savoy tradition was wearing somewhat thin. It was redeemed by its Maori setting, and one wonders why it was "The Moorish Maid" and »ot "Tapu" that attracted that clever Savoyard Mr Workman to such an extent that he almost persuaded a syndicate to finance a production at the Savoy in London. Alfred Hill's other opera, for which the libretto was written by ,an Auckland journalist, Mr Birch, was in the neo-Gaiety manner. One recalls a very irrelevant sextette — or it may have boen an octette —of hockey girls. " Tapu " had its irrelevancies, too. One remembers that fine baritone D. O'Connor taking the stage in a kind of troubadour costume. He was a strolling player, who, in company with Mi&s Gertie Campion, bad wandered casually into a Maori settlement. There was ; also present Mr W. S. Percy, who made up' in his clever fashion as a well-known Australian statesman. The opera was produced on a Saturday night, and that afternoon an important football match was played at onu of the big grounds in Dunedin. Huia feathers in cardboard were distributed as advertisements. Arthur Adams, like Merton Hodge, learned to write for the stage by writing for the University Capping Carnival. He was not responsible for the famous opening chorus which lias been sung to two tunes from "Patience" for so many years. The present writer once erroneously stated that he was, and the author of this lyric made himself known from as far away as Melbourne. That Arthur Adams wrote capping songs is a fact that can be verified by reference to past files of the University Review. Of his conduct of the Red Page in the Sydney Bulletin the present writer is not in a position to speak. Mr Pat Lawlor, the representative of the Sydney Bulletin in New Zealand, writes thus of Arthur Adams in his recently-published work, "Confessions of a Journalist":—" This well-known poet and writer has written verses in praise of New Zealand. He was on the Wellington Post for three years, and for a while was associate editor ot the New Zealand Times. He was a war correspondent in China during the Boxer outbreak, followed his profession in England, and later returned to Sydney, where for a while he edited the Red Page." Mr Lawlor also comments on the fact that a poem of Arthur Adams's is emblazoned on the interior of the Wellington city tramcars. Adams is represented in all the Australian and New Zealand anthologies, or, at least in the later anthologies. His other co-operation with Alfred Hill will, perhaps, be better remembered than " Tapu." This was " Hinemoa," the music of which is still to be heard on occasions. Like other pioneers, Adams was born a little before his time. He never enjoyed a success fou. It is certain that he will retain his place in the history of literary and artistic effort in New Zealand and Australia. He was for a time representative of the firm of J. C. Williamson in New Zealand, so that he knew the inwardness of both the commercial and the amateur theatre in Australia and New Zealand.

Those who knew Arthur Adams personally testify to his pleasant disposition. Though he went to the Old Country to seek his fortune, he was n New Zealander at heart. His idiom is the Australian idiom, despite the influences which may be traced in such a work as "Mrs Pretty and the Premier."