PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

Otago Witness, Issue 2284, 9 December 1897, Page 39

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

The Pall Mall Magazine for November is a good average number, containing many welU written, instructive, and entertaining contributions and fine illustrations. Robert Louis Btevenßon's "St. Ives" it concluded in the good old romanfcio way which pleases all save those for whom life has become sour. The fiction besides consists of "A M«e'« Nest," ••How Bois Rose and I Captured the King," 11 The Pilot," and " A Moment's Madness," all cleverly-written, short complete stories. Of the poetry "The Widow at the Lion" seems to us the most noteworthy example, while the three reproductions from wash drawings that accompany it are, with the exception of the beautiful frontispiece, " La Sarab&nde," much the finesb artistic embellishments of th« number. In their production the camera has been kept in strict BflbsetvieuQe to the brain* eie, and,

hand of the . artist, a thine; much I* be commended at present, when Mi appears as though • deluges of mechanical photo-engravings, mostly very dreary things, are likely to swamp truly artistic effort in pictorial art. Only the dullest imagination can rejoice at this instanca of the apparent survival of the worst. Of the more solidly valuable items "The Campaign of St. Vincent," "A . Builder of the Empire "—a sketch of tho career of Sir John Macdonald, who from a childhood of poverty and hard privation rose to become Canada's greatest statesman,— Longbat,another of th« peculiarly interesting Great House article?, and •• The Home of the Fenguins of the World" are the moat conspicuous. Th» Penguin article is by Professor Bickerton, of Christchurch, and is a capital account of tho writer's voyage to the Macquaries.*in February 1895, in the ketch Gratitude. The professor* descriptive matter is lucid and exhaustive, while the pictures of rookeries are moat amazing, showing not millions only, but square miles of these wonderful birds. As usual the w«ak spot in this v/ell-conduoted periodical i« its " Humours of the^ Month." " A vacancy for a humourist" might well be advertised by its conductors. In the November number of the Review of Reviews Prince Rtnjitsinhji commence! what gives every promise of being a most interesting series of articles on Stoddarb's cricket team hi Australia. The Prince has an easy and pleasant style of writing, and thii, together with his proficiency at the game and his knowledge of everything of interest connected with cricket, cannot fail to make the articles widely read and earefally studied. Mr Pitchett, in his "Fightifor the Flag," deals with Wellington at Vittoria. A map of the field of operations and portraits of the British generals in the Peninsular are interesting accompaniments ; to • this month's sketch. Mr Stead's character sketch is Boss Richard Croker, of ' Tammany Hall fame, and with such interesting material at hand, needless to say, the resulting'description of New York financial lire is engroisingly interesting. The remainder of the contents ace quite up to the average.

The Triad for December substitutes a coupla oE artistically printed pictures for its usual monthly mu»ic»l supplement. v The first is a c- mbination representing a Maori underground storehouse for root crops together with several specimens of Maori carving, and is particularly interesting. The other is the interior of » Wellington art sbudio. The paper itself contains quite a number of well-executed half-tone illustrations, and the reading matter is bright and interesting as usual.