Review.

Southland Times, Issue 4995, 5 August 1884, Page 2

Review.

— — — « Recollections : Australia, England, Ireland, Scotland, New Zealand. — By Alfred Cox. This is a book to be relished specially by coloaists, but that will be acceptable to all men. Nobody will dispute the author's light to publish the recollections of his life, spent as that has been, for the most part, in new couutries, of which the earlier records become every year more precious. Mr Cjx has long been a person of note in New Zealand, with the best opportunities of knowing the men who were at its foundation, and he has done a wise and timely thing in giving us these memorials of his experience. We say this specifically of particular portions of the book, for, a3 the title sets forth, Australia comes in for a share of notice, and along with it, England, Ireland and Scotland. Mr Cox's reminiscences of his fa .her hring before us the beginning of settlement in N-\v South Wales, always an alt r active subject, on account of the incidents themselves and the marvellous development, in less than a hundred years, of that great country. The contributions to the illustration of life in the old days there have a decided value, and will ba reaH with interest. The fol- . lowing story of a rejected offer will excite a strange sensation in those who know Sydney ;— •

The Governor, on the eve of his departure from the Colony, eaid to a young: officer who had. been his aide-de-camp: — "Now, my young; friend, I am off to morrow for the Old Country, but as I am leaving you behind and the probability is that you will remain in the Colony and become a settler, I should like, while power is still vested in me to do you a ' good turn. What say you to a free grant of land 1 All that you see around, thesa beautiful bays forming the finest harbor in | the world, and all in the direction rf Wooloomooloo, is open for selection — b:mnd, long before you are done wi + ,h the world to become a suburb to a large city, and to grow into great value. Say the word aod 1 will issue instiuclions to have a Crown grant prepared." The young soldier's reply was :— " Thank you very much, Sir, for your good intentions, but as there is not the slightest prospect of my leaving the Service, or of returning to the Colony when I once get away from it, and as it would be a little inconvenient to me at the present moment to pay the first demand on the issue of a Crown grant, (£5) you will forgive fme for declining" to be transformed into a landowner." This man lived to become a settler in the Colony — with a large family and limited means— and to staud amazed at his own folly in having turned his back on such an offer. Mr Cox had the story frcyn the individual himself when an old man. The horrors of thirst have seldom been more powerfully depicted than in the narrative thus given by Mr Cox : — Swagsmen trudging along a dusty road iu a hot dry season, suffer considerablj at timis. I remember on one occasion coming up wit h a man dead beat, literally unable to drag himat-lf along a yard further. I shall never forget that si^rht. He was squatted in the dust, unable to stand up, and apparently perishing for the want of a eup of water. The acaount he gave of himself wag that he had been without water for iwo days, wa'king the whole time. I had never looked upon a man in such a stage of suffering and exhaustion. His eyes were glazed, and his lipand toogue as black as though they had been smeaied over with caustic. On my comiag into sight he threw up his arms, exclaiming, ' Thank God, someone has at last coaie to rescue me from death ! ' Before quite giving in, he appeared to have made a last effort to •irag himself along the dusty road; o^e co ald see traces of his attempts. He then sat up with his back against a tree. He had been afraid, he said, to ciose his eyes in sleep, dreading the attacks of native dog3 that all night long howled around him. He looked l.ke a man driven to either madness or death, and could harlly have lingered longer than twenty -four hourd. The spot where he was was at least seven mile* from w.nor. Tusre were two ways of affording him ixlicf ; oae by at once putting bim on my horse, holuing him on ihe saddle and walking by his side ; che other by galloping to where water was to be had and bringing back a sufficient supply to freshen him up and en ible him to sit upon the horse without assistance. Calculating that it would take somewhat less time to gallop seven miles out and seven miles back than to walk and lead the horse seven miles, -I determined to ride. Wh°n I told Lim I meant to leave him for a while, [he clung 10 me, seeming to dread the possibility of his being hft to die in the wilderness. Putting spurs to my horse, quite equal to the spurt required of him, I covered the distance th-re and back, quite fourteen miles, in somewhat 1e33 than one hour. On coming up to him, he cried out, ' Oh, eir, give it to me at once ; all of it,' I replied, ' .Not so, I mean to dole it mt little by little ; now for a h'rst sip,' giving him a little, and alter a short interval g.ving him another and another, and soon, but "never much at one draught. 1 then poured a little over his head, fane, neck and bands, which he considered a reckless dealing with it. Uc--erving two or three draughts in the bottle to be given at intervals during the rile, I after some exertion pushed him up on to the Hordes. UccasiomUly, while leading the horse, I looked back at him ; his eye never wandered from the bottle, and when at last we came to the station hut. where water in abundance was 10 be had, I gave him the last dro2), Lifting hi m off the horse, I got him into the hut, made him dip his head into a bucket of water, got him some strong tea, and put him on to a bed. Tue shepherd living at the hut; promised to let him re3t lor a day or two, and unlertook to do for him all that was necessary uutil he felt strong enough to mjve on. Mmy months afterwaida I had the satisfaction of hearing that he quickly regaiued suength, and was full of gratitude to (ioJ for having, as he believed, »ent someone to drag him from the very jaws of death." Mr Cox was induced to come over to New Zealaud in 1854, and became one of the early squatter?. Canterbury was the Province in which he took up country and it is of Canterbury that lie lias most to saj\ We have in the book good and sympathetic sketches of the founders of this settlement. Wakefield and Godley, and of its primitive days. It was in 1857, however, that Mr Cox took up his abode finally in Canterbury, and he by and by became a member of the General Assembly. His account of the public men in the colony is remarkably interesting — particularly that of Sir Cracroft Wilson, with whom ho was on terms of intimacy. The following is rather a good story of a welUknown statesman, now passed away: — Before Sir Donald McLean became continuously employed as a political agent in native affairs he was often utilized by the Provincial Government of Hawke3 Bay to purchase lands from the Maori*. On one occasion, mepting a groat chief by appointment to arrange as to the purchase of a block of land, he passed some days with the section of the tribe interested ia the laad, entertaining them with all the news of the day, aad speakinsr to them often and fully upon all questions under tha sun except the very o ;e upon which he ha 1 by appointment come to discuss and to settle. Diys thus passed without any attempt on either side to make the first move on the diplomatic board. The Maori all expectation ; the European patient and polite. At last the representative of the Government expres;ed his intentio-i to leave. His horse was caught, was saddled and bridled, and brought up to where the two great men stood. McLean stnok hands with the old chief, thanked him for his hospitality and invited him to visitNapier ; put his foot into the stinup, and in t-ie a;t of throwing his leg over his horse, turned half round and ta : .d, (1 I suppose lam to have the land ?" "Land," said the old chief, "take it, take all, take everything. You have wearied me out ; the land is yours. " The reader will find much to please him in the descriptions of many portions of the two Islands visited by the author, and in many racy anecdotes of the old day?. But wo cannot particularize. The book is written in a pleasant, gossiping style. Sjme of it is perhaps a little prosy, and some of the stories a trifle weak, but on the whole, it is an excellent record of a varied and most interesting life, and a pleasing contribution to the early history of two colonies. We mast not forget to notice the get-up of the book, which is especially creditable to the publishers, Missrs Whitcombe and Tombs, of ChrisU church, Tlu printing and piper are excellent, and we understand that the covers show the first succeajful " blocking" that Las been done in the colony.