BOOKS & BOOKMEN

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17068, 28 September 1929, Page 9

BOOKS & BOOKMEN

A POLITICAL BIOGRAPHY. (SIR JOSEPH WARD.) It is not often that the biographer ventures to give to the world the life history of a living' statesman. Usually it is f§lt that oho cannot get a true perspective until the figure has passed away. Mr. R. A. Loughnan, the veteran journalist, however, has essayed the task in a volume, “The Biography of Sir Joseph Ward" (New Century Press), in which he gives a yery sympathetic account of the career of the present Prime Minister of New Zealand. Mr. Loughnan has been closely connected with Parliamentary life during his long period of service in the press gallery and as an an editor of leading New Zealand journals, and he has found much to admire as well as muck of surpassing interest in the rise of a telegraph messenger at the Bluff'to the highest position in the Dominion, “without academic training or any other experience, entirely by force of effort." His sketch is an illuminative story, not ohly of Sir Joseph Ward’s political career and achievements, but of the history of How Zealand. The banking. crisis of 1924 is dealt with, the tariff proposals, old age pensions schemes, the Public Health Act, the Ididlancl and Manawatu railways; sir Joseph’s attendances at various Imperial Conferences, ids educational policy for the Empire; his establishment of universal penny postage in New Zealand, and many other matters; that have made up a very active political life extending over 40 years. Coneluding, the author draws this moral: “Is there anything very wrong with the government of the country in urbich there is such opening of careers to the talents of the people? The career of Sir Joseph Ward—with many other life successes amongst us —is a trumpet proclamation of the futility of the crowd that gets nowhere because its ambitions are dreams, and of the unreason that prefers mass intentions to individual effort. In a ■world that discourages individual effort, individual initiative, individual responsibility, Sir Joseph Ward and the very many men whose careers adorn our civilisation would be unseen, unheard, and. unmarked. Their line qualities would be lost to the community that needs them. The constitution which has opened the way to their careers requires no radical amendment, and these careers prove that they, and the men who made them, can be. trusted to make those adjustments of practice whenever they arc needed. Such is the lesson in Sir Joseph Ward’s career. Whatever happens to him and Ins Cabinet, that supreme lesson will never bo forgotten in the New Zealand be has served so long and so- well." A POPULAR NOVELIST. It .is four years since Mi.. A. S. M. HutcbiD.ion,,the author of “If Winter Comes," published a novel. Most of that time he has been engaged on one now about to appear with Hoddcr and Stoughton, ‘ ‘ The Uncertain Trumpet. ’ ’ That title is suggested by the Biblical passage, “For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare

himself to the battle." Mr. Hutchinson presents a dozen characters and a special quest among them is to find a solution l'or the problems of modern youth. “They have no background," says Father Absolute, one of the characters. OPPENHEIM’S LATEST. Admirers or Mr. E. Phillips Oppenheim.’s book, will not be disappointed in his latest, “The Treasure House of Martin Hews" (llodrlev and Stoughton). It is a stirring plot, full of exciting encounters, murders and mysteries. Major Owston, who is down and out, in engaged by Martin Hews to protect him from the criminal gang led by a man known as Joseph, who possesses a masterly brain, and the power to disguise himself so completely that recognition is impossible. Martin Hews is deformed, and sits in an electric chair of his own device. He is able to wheel himself rapidly about the house, and even to run up and down stairs in the chair. His house, which contains priceless works of art stolen from many sources by a criminal 'gang employed by him, is protected front attack by electrical devices of all kinds. The scene shifts from the country to London, where Ovvston comes into contact with Joseph, and for a time is outwitted by him. The story moves swiftly from one sensational incident to another, and provides a. long sue cession of thrills.