WHAT NEW ZEALAND READS

Otago Witness, Issue 3804, 8 February 1927, Page 50

WHAT NEW ZEALAND READS

INFERIOR LITERATURE PREFERRED. ( AUCKLAND, February 4. . J ha ?' e i been , unable to make a close Study Of what the people of New Zealand read but if the class of book one sees in the majority of the shops is any criterion I should say the people do not take their reading seriously enough, but merely pick up a book to pass the time away. • ■■■ — This is the opinion of Mr HuMi R Dent, managing director of the well-known London publishing house of J. M. Dent and Sons (Ltd.), who has just concluded a two months’ holiday tour of New Zealand, accompanied by Mr s Dent. They wid leave Auckland to-dav. for England via Australia. " * Mr Dent said he was afraid a great many people read books in the same way that they spent an hour at Luna Park, and if this continued they would lose their taste for the better kind of books. All reading should be taken fop pleasure, but there was a difference between the cowboy and detective stories, and, sav, the novels of Dickens and Conrad—two admirable examples. In the one case there was an imagination of life, and in the other a real reflection of life. The proportion of good books was ’ncreasing, but they were far outnumbered by the bad ; The schools in England were now. beginning to teach more seriously the English language and English literature, and, in future, a still greater improvement could be expected. Mr Dent was favourably impressed with the standard of the New Zealand newspapers. He was unable to go closely into New Zealand literature, but while in Auckland; he had had a fairy story submitted to him by an Auckland girl, aged 20. While the work was not extraordinary, the writer revealed a particular style, and lie was taking the work to England with him. with a view to publication.