THE MAYOR AS CATERER.

Timaru Herald, Volume XCIV, Issue 14457, 1 June 1911, Page 4

THE MAYOR AS CATERER.

When Mr Craigie announced his intention _ to forego the usual Mayoral installation banquet this year in favour of a gift of books to the public library, his decision was at once regarded as an excellent departure from past custom. It might, however, have proved a _ very _ small departure. Mr Craigie might have- ordered books as light and "heady" as the champagne, or books at least as _ indigestible as anything which precedes " musical honours." But the list of books which has been chosen by the Mayor, and which we publish in another column, offers a mental feast of quite as many courses as the _ banquet, and much more lasting value. The list presents

"An equal dower Of .freshness and of staying power." Those who work through its contents, when they arrive, will become acquainted with some of the most important works of biography and general literature published within tha last few months, as well as several older Works .wliQse absence has been a sorrowful' reproach to tho library in the past. The biographical section—the list is long enough to be divided into sections—is specially strong._ " The Reminiscences of Goldwin Smith " gives glimpses and impressions of Carlyle, Thackeray, and many others of the great men of the Victorian era, 'besides enlarging our acquaintance with its manysided author. " Sir William Butler," whose recently issued autobiography ' is included, was a soldier and an idealist, whose pen is almost as skilful as his sword.. He commanded the South African forces in the agitated days immediately preceding the last Boer war, and held political views about the instigation of that war, which he expresses with the utmost' frankness. There is the latest biography of Mark Twain, by his secretary, who was with him when he' died. " The Japanese . Letters of Lafcndio Hearn" give a unique insight into the character of a strangely individual man of genius, and also into the mind and customs of " Old Japan." " The Life of John Oliver Hobbes}" also recently published, records the development and unusual outlook upon life and literature of one of the most JjJiilJiant women novelists" of bur time, the late Mrs Craigie. "A still higher excursion into literature is made by the inclusion of Samuel Butler's great work "Ercwhon," which is peculiarly associated with 'Canterbury, aud another philosophical work of the same writer, whom some critics have adjudged to be the greatest English satirist since Swift. "We have also two good samples, in the beautiful translation lately issued, of the works of tho living French novelist- and satirist Anatole F'runce, who, in the domain of irony, stands on tho same pedestal with Swift, though his method is as light and sparkling as the Irishman's was bitter, and severe. Special interest also attaches to (he novel Marie Claire," the story written by a blind French seamstress, which has just been acclaimed with transports of delight by the highest literary critics of Franco, and has pleased the public equally with the critics. There are other works of general literature, light and serious. Mr C-raigie has been (hanked as a provider; he deserves no less to be congratulated as a caterer.