PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

Otago Witness, Issue 2556, 11 March 1903, Page 50

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

The February number of the Review of Reviews is to hand, and proves a decidedly interesting number, and well illustrated, too, in regard to the relevancy of its contents. The humour of tho month is good, and i 9 followed by an interesting illustrated article on the. goldfields water scheme of Western Australia. Another article is devoted to the wonderful success of Dr Serowz, whom Mr Stead christens " A straightener of Children." Next comes the novel feature of the number, a serial story it is called, by the untiringly original Mr Stead. It • ie, however, a serial story of a most remarkable kind, what kind let Mr Stead himself explain :—": — " It ia an attempt, month by month, to translate into terms of attractive fiction the current events of the day." The opening numbers include a sketch of the Gordono of Rockstone Hall, a great family whose personality is to form the connecting thread of that never-ending serial of current events ; another is devoted to the great army of the London Unemployed, and another describes the Australian drought. The Book of the Month is Mr Sydney Lee's Queen Victoria, a Biography which deals with the great Queen in her aspect as aSovereign only, excluding the personal and womanly side of her character almost entirely. The usual synopsis of the contents of contemporary magazines and reviews concludes an interesting number — if we exclude - the lavish advertisement of " The New Idea," achieved in many artful methods.. The Triad for March is of course, largely; interested in the recent visit of. Madame* Melba to Now Zealand, with all the musical preeepte and morals to be drawn from that event. " Massage, Electricity, and Dry Hoi Air in Medicine," forms the text of an illustrated article which invalids may read with profit — shall we say pleasure ? One or two well-selected articles, notably one on John Ruskin. reprinted from the Argus, together with the usual plentitude of lighter matter in the form of verses, anecdotes, and information enticingly served up, constitute a pleasant number.

Mr Hughes, ♦ngineer on the Unity dredge, •ustained concussion of the brain through falling off the gantry on Friday, 27th ult. The sufferer, who is still unconscious, is being attended to at the Dunstan Hospital.. Some time ago the Parnassus Estate,. North Waiau River, was offered to the Government. Mr Seddon had already eeen the estate from the Cheviot side, but on Wednesday drove through from Mendip Hills to Waiau, and saw the Back of the estate. He liked the land much better on the Mendip side than on the Cheviot side. It contained: good country. It 1b probable that the Goyarnment may. purchase this prpiEedar also* .