ADDITIONS TO LIBRARY

Taranaki Daily News, 19 January 1935, Page 12 (Supplement)

ADDITIONS TO LIBRARY

STUDENTS DISCUSS WAR

GROWTH OF A FAMILY BUSINESS. TRAGEDY IN SYDNEY’S BOHEMIA. The chief librarian of the New Plymouth Public Library reports the following books in popular demand:— General Literature. "Goodbye Russia,” by Captain Evan P. Cameron. “A Village in a Valley,” by Beverly Nichols. “The Egypt’s Gold,” by David Scott. “Children of the Poor,” Anonymous. “Merchants of Death,” by H. C. EngleBrecht and F. C. Hanighen. “Ashes—and Dust,” by D. R. Jardine. Fiction. “Gallybird,” by Sheila Kaye-Smith. “Creation’s Cry,” by Humfrey Jordan. “The Jasmine Farm,” by “Author of ‘Elizabeth.’ ” “Goodbye Mr. Chips,” by James Hilton. “Dew on the Grass,” by Eileund Lewis. “Interlude for Sally,” by Beatrice Kean Seymour. “Young Oxford and War,” by Michael Foot, R. G. Freeman, Frank Hardie, and Keith Steel-Maitland. (Selwyh & Blount.) This volume contains the views of Oxford undergraduates, in regard to war. The discussion it embodies arose from the passing of a resolution at a student’s gathering in which a pledge was given against young men taking part in any future war. This refusal to be kilted or mutilated for the sake of King and Country ted to considerable discussion in Great Britain, repercussions of which were felt in New Zealand where at one University College a somewhat similar resolution to that of Oxford was put forward and Supported. It would be easy to say that this book betrays the rather doctrinaire fervour of the young student who has had little real association With the struggle to live. There is that atmosphere about the four articles, but there is a good deal mote, And it is Well for older readers to remind themselves that it Is the university students of to-day who will be the Empire’s leaders. and directors before long. The four dissertations represent the Liberal, Communist, Labour and Conservative views of pacifism. They differ in their definitions of the causes of war, but they agree in condemning its futility, its tragic waste, and the certainty it leaves behind of further struggle. Both the Liberal and the Conservative Writers urge the maintenance and extension of the authority of the League Of Nations. Both of them seem td hint that it should opera' : a sort of international police force to keep in order those who would break the peace, and both of them are hazy in their suggestions for more effective application of the League’s authority. The Communist Considers the League of Nations Only another agent for the preservation of the capitalistic system, and so long as that system remains he cart see no hope of the elimination of war. Tile essays are quite Worth study. They present different Viewpoints with clarity, and. if they proVoke the desire to challenge their conclusions this is not a bad quality in a book that is meant to be treated seriously. “The Foolscap Rose,” by Joseph Hergesheimer. (Cassell.) Mr. Hergesheimer has told with much skill the history of a “family” business in the United States, The Wigton paper mill Was founded in the early days of American independence, ahd the first chapters of its story show the conflict between the conservative owner who has little belief in machinery and his son-in-law, Jacob KurZer, who had learnt not only greater dexterity in hand manufacture but had also gathered many ideas for supplanting It by machine production. There is nothing very startling in the evolution of the business itself. It follows the track nearly every manufacture took in the 19th century. Hatted of machinery gave way to worship, Close association of master and man Was lost in mechanised production, competition led to grouping of interests and the growth of the American ’"rusts. It is at that point that this history ends, the Kurzer factory being absorbed by a Trust. But with the history of the business the author has entwined Very subtly the life histories of the Wigton family and their descendants. J. rob Kurzer married Miranda Wigton although he did not wish to but desired to marry her younger sister Rosanna. Through the generations that follow, fOi* Rosanna also contented herself with a second-best marriage with a man for whom she had little real affection, the consequences of Jacob’s weakness in making the wrong woman the mother of his children is emphasised in various ways.

In a hundred years the Wigton-Kurzer clan becomes a large one. There are “throw-backs” in each generation to the good and the bad qualities of their ancestors, but to nearly all of them the sacrifice of self to the call of duty remains. The later generations might be pompous, selfrighteous and rather boring' people to live with. They had two major crimes, the one was to lose money and the other to be found out in any sexual entanglements. In Britain the Kurzer family would have been dubbed hopelessly Victorian Snobs and hypocrites. Yet there was good stuff in them. When Nicolas Kurzer had to choose between sacrificing his factory to a Trust or sacrificing the depositors in the bank he directed he had no hesitation. The factory went, and with it all the importance and respect that was so deaf to the generation in which Nicolas had become a local leader. He had saved his self-respect, however, and to most men the occasions arise when conflict for such a victory must be accepted, though often with no such dramatic surroundings as those in which this story ends. It is a very readable narrative. The lives of simple and not-so-simple folk are told with brightness and sincerity. The alteration in outlook and circumstance as America developed are displayed in their effect upon the individual father than upon the community, and the people chose.! as examples are always interesting. "Seven Poor Meii of Sydney,” by Ohrisblna Stead. (Peter Davies.) Since Sydney has a population of over a million souls there is, one supposes, room for a Bohemia different from that of the days when the caves along the foreshore of the harbour were campinggrounds for the derelicts. It is in this newer Bohemia Miss Stead has placed one of her “Seven Poor Men.” The others walk in the same mean streets, but they have a narrower outlook. They are, in fact, chiefly concerned in getting or keeping a job that will provide them with sustenance and an occasional carousal.

It is “Michael Baguenault” who links Bohemia to less attractive poverty. His greatest friend was a paralytic with a brilliant mind and a nature disciplined to make the most of a shattered career. Michael took himself too seriously. The book is overloaded with the morbid introspection of a man who was in love with his step-sister, with his friend’s wife, with other women, but most of all, and always, in love with himself. There are other people; Joseph, the

humble-minded cousin of Michael, Catherine, his Step-SiSter, and there are the Other four who made up the seven poor men. They are interesting character studies, but the morbidity of this book overwhelms all Other characteristics.

It is a brilliantly written volume, but it leaves an unpleasant taste. There are misfits in every society and occasionally some who do hot seen! to fit into any niche in their community. It hardly seems worth while putting on record their moans of self-pity or even their philosophy of life. To most people this book will lose much of its appeal, much of the credit due t the care with which it h as been written, because, to speak frankly, it is dull as well as dreary.