A NEW ZEALAND NOVEL.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume 1, Issue 14, 21 February 1914, Page 1

A NEW ZEALAND NOVEL.

-■As:.® rule New Zealand fiction has hitherto been chdSracterised 'by, no, special-or deliberate element of humour. Mr Arthur J. Rees, however,, the author of "The Meyry Marauders' *' (William tieihsnmnn, p£r George Robertson), "ha r s ifot only-set out to give, us the low comedy side : of a certain phasQ of theatrical life in the Dominion, ' but must be credited 'with having .scored a distinct success iif this direction. His hero is a young, Englishman, tvho; sets out from Auckland as the advance agent - of a company "of travelling mummers, " The Merry Marauders," whose .self-appointed mission is to "travel the smalls," and*introduce to the bucolics of the King Country; of the East Coast, and theßangitikei, such theatrift6l ! attra'ctibnS as lie within the' Tespian capacities of a; dompany of a dozen or so performers—l . beg pardon —iartists! Mr Rees has evidently "been there," and clearly rejoices in the curious mishaps and mi sadventures which he recounts in so vigorous and essentially humorous a style. Audiences which are cold, not to say openly, demonstratively hostile; landlords who " are obdurate as to the payment of board bills; billposters who "threaten to "play out the company" be- r cause their services: are dispensed with, and who carry " out their threats;: troubles with the leading lady"; flirta- - . tions with the soiibrette; weird experiences of "props" and ingeniously make-shift scenery; transport problems—on one occasion the whole company travelled from one township to another in a hearse—difficulties with printers and editors; all the small worries, and, on one occasion, grotesquely comical impasses into which , the travelling milliners are forced,, by a mischievous fate —from these and many other pities of the career " of '' The, Merry Marauders,'' Mr Rees extracts a liberjfi . supply of- most humorous entertainment. Perhaps, here '*; and there; the light comedy degenerates into wild farce, , but when laughter comes so easily,;as it must do to every reader of this original and capital story, it were churlish : to be hypercritical. The author's account of how the company staged that highly I '/moral temperance drama,' 4 Ten Nights in a Bar Room, "at Wanaunga, when the "Merry"Marauders"'temporarily, and alas, disastrously, allied themselves with the Wanaunga NoLicense Association, and allowed- Mr Abel Baggpott, ' Worthy Chief Wagoner of the Wanaunga Young WaterWagonists Band, and of followers to takfc parts in thfe production, is most excellent fooling. Sev- t eral of tlie" townships which figurj3 in the story could, I ' think, be easily identified. "Thei Miferry Marauders", can be comme-nded as a most mirth-provoking prodttC* tion. In certain North Island townships its pages may* however, be read with rather mixed feelings.