BOOKS AND BOOKMEN.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 16112, 28 April 1923, Page 2

BOOKS AND BOOKMEN.

A “MILESTONES” NOVEL.

’THE SEVEN AGES .OF WOMAN.

An old family album, in which, can be traced a child's passage into age through a long succession of changing modes and backgrounds from lStil) to 1920 —it is not as a rule a beautiful object; but let a Writer who is a skilled decorator in words dream over .aii' '.thc result may be, if wo arc .ComptOn 'Mackenzie’s now Seven Age's of Woman, ” Bba« of Mr. Mackenzie’s readers Who have always secretly held that the.delicious filigree of “The PassioVMe Elopement ” was liis best worn .will be confirmed in their heresy by the daintiness and pretty pathos of the tale of Mary Flower unfolded in these jpages. Not thiat with the best will in Uhe world we can find Mary a thrilling heroine, pr check the creeping in of a doubt whethor the convention that makes tho late Victorian woman so flabby, can, be altogether just. A girl ought,’ moreover, to live Yip to the portents that attend her birth. Tempests arose to. provent Mary from being born at-all.; her grandfather,' Sir Bicliard Flower, cut off his son, ■ Edward; in <1859 sooner than agree to his marrying Farmer Taylor hi lovely girl and becoming the father of a lovelier daughter. Her birth iu dirty London lodgings'..was an agony, and her first seafaring in the emigrant ship for Australia ended in wreck and left her are orphan in the care of queer Mr, Fnwcus and his \vife, who, with just

a drop of the Dickons elixir in their

veins to Support them, looked after tho basement of a publisher’s office in Paternoster row. Surely here is the promise -Of romance! Surely tho littlo girl whc£feeds her fancies, ore books from “old stock,”with St. Pftlll’s cross gloaming overhead when the sun shines, ought to grow up no ordinary maiden 1. *■ • Contrary Mary! When the third age dawns in 1880, and she has been ten years under tho charge of old Lady Flower, her grandmother (the Ftnvcuses only too satisfactorily forgotten) she has becomo as vapid a doll as could be fearefi. From her abandonment of her real lover, because he is only the son of the gardener at her old French school, and her loveless manage do convenance, to the seventh age, when we leave her in 1020 trying to repair past mistakes by sending for the daughter of her own .disinherited son, she seems to shirk or fumble each chancq of her life. But her paling cannot rob tho book of its charm. A sweet melancholy is the note of fthe book—a sense of tho ever unattainable best and of the working compromises that are the hand-rail of tho ordinary man or woman. Mary is very fairly ordinary, despite her being the fruit of a sacrificial love, and having tho evocativo experience of a sudden change from tho grubbiness of a London basement to the ampler ether of travel and She accepts the second-rate in love, and while sho can appreciate adventure, it is only from the stalls. In her podgy husband, her wastrel son, and her critical daughter, wc seem to have implicit reminders that “tho gods arc just.” A suggestion of balance, not overstrained, is, indeed, part of the charm of the story, culminating when Mary, old and exiled, receives an unknown prattling granddaughter, her only kin, just as she herself had been received 60 years before. Mi-. Mackenzie’s technical management of his design is exceedingly deft. By clever selection and rejection, ho brings,.-his •• seven periods clearly into his pages. Often by a well-judged stroke pr tivo (as in sketching the twentieth-century children of Maryland Jemmio Alison, her stodgy husband) he tells us more than he has done in far longer charactoratudies. But in the cnd*the grace of the design is what counts —tho work, as we said, of a fine decorator in words.

ROMANTIC LOVE. An atmosphere of gentle romance (pervades Katherine Tynan’s new story, 11 They Loved Greatly. ’ ’ Lady-Kilmorna fled in fear from a husband who drinks hut is passionately fond of her. Alurcd Snehevercl

takes her to Florence. Their situa- . tion there is ambiguous since it is im- ' possible to explain or expect people to believe that Aim go’s marriage vows, j despite her 'flight, remain unbroken. On Kilmorna's death, while gallantly saving lifo at sea, Alured and Aimco marry, l andia painful episode i" whieh had drawn many malicious

glances on poor Aimeo is closed. The story leads nowherb; in particular, but the soft Irish speech of the minor characters gives the book that pleasant kindliness of tone which readers of Katherine Tynan find so attractive.

SEAWAYS. Ships and men, the lives they live, the dreams they dream", and the humorous philosophy that is tlieirs; the secret thoughts of* the dog watch and • the biting wit that can humanise an environment .of death and steel. All these are vividly produced in the yarns* of “Bartimous,” England's foremost writer of short sea stories. His latest volumo of these yarns is probably the best work that he has ever done, and it will no doubt be in demand for wears to come. To choose a few cxaujples: “A Son of Consolation”.is a story about beer, told lightly, but to bo read slowly and thoughtfully. , “A Busman's Holiday” is a breezy piece of foolishness guaranteed to return half an hour of healthy laughter. “The Dog Watch” is a pen picture from the pen of a master. All the others are good, but they are too many to quote.

THE SQUIRREL'S QUEST. Here is a good story from Mr. ,Wm. Robb’s new book, “The Charm’ *- of Teaching Children,” just published. A certain callow and “dressy” youth began his professional career in a Boys’ School and mado the fatal mistake of “talking down” to his charges. He was fond of regaling them with autobiographical anecdotes to their ill-concealed disgust. One afternoon he entertained them with an account of a woodland walk, wherein ho had been charmed by the company of a squirrel, which, as he averred, had followed him “for several miles.” sir,” interposed a mild youth, “it took you for a ‘nut.’ ”

WHEN MAN BEGAN TO THINK,

If, as the experts tell us, the owner of that Patagonian skull roamed about our planet 1,000,000 years ago, ni was entitled to bo classed as a human being, and not an ape, the intellectual development of his long lino of ancestors must have been immeasurably slow. For Professor Lester Ward, of the Brown University, U.S.A., in a recent work, assures us that the human race has been conscious of its existence for barely 10,000 years, and really alive as a psychic being for less than 5000 years*.* •, He also -tells :us—rand fhcro is plenty of proof for that statement —that ail that man has done of any real value has been accomplished in the last 3000 years, and his great achievements have boon crowded into

tho last two centuries. We arc how, he adds, just in the beginning of the age of mind, and tho golden age lies ahead.

GIANT EMERALD. “The Fountain of Given Fire,” by Mr. P. j. Brebner, is a. novel which Plight In figure among the “best sellers,” if a good plot; skilfully wo l'ked out and aboum litig in iiicideiit. and surprises, iri aby recoinniendutinh. it coneerna the quest for u gigantic emerald tlnvt has been Sttden front a Chinese Emperor's treasure. Englishmen, .Americrtu'Sj, and fieli'disii Chinese, equipped \vsth A special installation tor torture, are all in pursuit of this gem, and there are pretty doings in London town before it is finally disposed bh If air. Brebner can write hi'orri novel's like this lie should go Lav-.

BEAD METAPHORS. The ‘‘Society for Pare English” has clone a bold deed in publishing a list of dead metaphors for the guidance of those that write. Hero arc a few old friends which lire, asked to bid adieu to. We shall do so, with a pang, so useful have they beefi: “Part and parcel,” “Beyond the pale,” “Tho scroll of fame,” “A place .in the sun,” “A silver .lining,” “Stemming the trdd,’’ “The fruits of victory,” and that almost indispensable phrase, “.Bound pegs in sqqnrc holes.”

The dictionary of the French Academy is not the only one that favors leisurely methods. The Italian Government has just, stopped the grant to the Accademia della Crusca, on the ground that the great dictionary un which, it has been working for ninety years will not be completed for another century. .1 wonder if the word “Fa&cisjno” -will ever appear in it?

POLYNESIAN JOURNAL.

The Journal of tlic Polynesian Society for March quarter is to hand, nnd contains a number of articles of exceptional interest, principal of which is Mr. Elsdon Best’s dissertation on the origin of the Maori. Mr. Best goes exhaustively into the literature on the subject, and states that the evidence such as it is, is in favor of an Asiatic origin for tho Maori and his brethren of Polynesia. ‘ ‘ The Maori Philosophy of Life and Matter ’ ’ is the title of an article by Kb H. T. Whatahoro. Dr. Buck deals scientifically. with Maori somatology and racial averugos, showing that one of the most marked physical characteristics of the Maori is the muscular development of the lower limbs, most noticeable when a Maori and a European football team walk on to the field stripped for the fray. Maori mothers employed massage and manipulation on their infants to secure this end; and lower limbs were pulled so as to straighten them. A saying from the Mahald tribe of Gisborne bears this out: “Stretch the lower limbs of your daughter that 3hc may walk with graee along the level flats of Manutuke.” “Surf Riding,by Canoe” is described by Mr. W. H. Skinner. Air. J. T. Lang 6 gives the following interesting story of Tawhiti hill, between Tolaga and Tokomaru Bay: Its full name is Tc Tawliiti-nui-a-Paoa (Paoa’s great snare). This Paoa was an ancient ancestor of East Coast tribes, from whom the Big river in,Poverty Bay is named AVaiopaon. According to the local legend, “there were giants in those days,” and one monstrous being, named Rongokako, when he travelled up tho East Coast from Turanga (Poverty Bay.) used to spring from point to point with tremendous strides, so tho redoubtable Paoa laid a snare on the hill in question in order to catch him, but failed, and tho giant leaped along the uneven, tenor of his way, uncaught. As a proof of the truth of this marvellous feat, there is one footprint to be seen of this doughty Rongokako on the papa rocks near Wliangara named tho Tapuac (footprint.) rocks, between Gable End Foreland and Tuahino Point, and another similar imprint on the rocks at Horocra, round the East Cape.

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED. “Married Love,” one of the much discussed publications of Dr. Marie Stojies, ■now in its tenth edition, comes from Messrs Angus andl Robertson through 'Mr. Tlios'. Adams. It professes to be a solution of sex difficulties and' deals with very’ intimate) affairs of wedlock in an exceedingly frank manner. The crux of tho argument it sets up is Dr. Sttopes’ theory of periodicity of .rythm and! the need ; for mutual adaptation, thereto. “The Mailed Fire, and Other Verses,” ;by Charles H. Souter, from the same publishers, may please many lovers of poetry. The first part of the volume is devoted to poems after the Dennis style, only, in Mallee colloquislism, the best of which: are “Harvest Time” and' “Next Seedip’.” Then follow some very dainty love lyrics and verses on various topics, all in good style, and' some excellent sea chantevs.

The Round Table for Alarch is to hand and* maintains its high standard 1 of informative literature. . Articles of note are ‘’France and ; Germany,” ‘’lreland: as it is,”' “The Future of Reparations? and Inter-Allied' Debts,"’ “Tho League of Nations,” “The Lausanne Conference,” “America and External Affairs,” and there.) wealth of information from the Dominions.

Latest English magazines are to hand from Messrs Gordon and Gotch, including the l ever-popular London, n, bumper number replete with fiction; the Premier, with the commencement of Robert 'W. Chambers’ new story “The Girl from Paris'the New Magazine, with a complete long novel “The Princess and Bell;” the Detective. Magazine, with many exciting articles on .criminals and crime; the Sovereign, with Ellon Pliilpotts’ stirring mystery novel; the Adventure Story Magazine : and the Rcdi, Gretn, and Violet, with theiV varied contents of light literature.