BOOK CORNER

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 33, 9 February 1937, Page 10

BOOK CORNER

TRAVEL “GONE SUNWARDS,” by Cecil Roberts (Hodder and Stoughton), pp. 323. Those who have read Cecil Roberts will guess what kind of book he will write concerning his winter visit. Io Florida. Those who do not know Cecil Roberts should make his acquaintance. His Pilgrim Cottage was a good novel, but it was more; it was the introduction to his particular corner of Oxfordshire. From that purchase, lor he did purchase a cottage, he engaged in his delights in the house, the garden and chief of the glories, in a love of the lore of the land in which he dwells. But then came an English winter, not a defensible winter, but one of those winters which breaks a man’s heart. The gallant author decided that he must write a novel. He determined to write his novel. He shut all else from his mind; but alas! A cheque came to hand for the royalties from Finland on a previously-published book. A crooner telling of moonlight over Miami did the rest and away went resolution. And away went our author. Cecil Roberts is not an author realty. He is one of those men who started out to be a poet and ended up being a journalist. Front the ideal he descended to the real: from the ethereal to the factual. But the poet has remained in the journalist and the combination is delightful, and particularly so when he is under the influence of an aesthete emotion while on one of his quests into the past. Cecil Roberts is always a good journalist, and consequently he sees not sermons in stones but stories in all sorts of persons. He enjoys the agitation of Mr. de Montalk Solomon over the King’s death. He delights in the Duchess, and particularly in the mistake that was made concerning her conduct. He has an eye for beauty and consequently the Countess receives a compliment. He knows how to travel and consequently avoids the captain’s table on ship. He finds his steward as interesting as the steward finds his passengers. And then he arrives at Florida.

Florida, with its ever-changing history, from swamp to Spanish, French, English, American ,and then millionaire domination has taken something from each and retained that something. The present millionaire’s playground has been pumped out of the sea, the wilderness challenges man’s hold on the coast, the hurricane assaults it, the rich people spend their money lavishly, turning this swamp into a land almost belond belief. It sounds like a dream. Even the wealthy people themselves who go there during the safe season feel their own insecurity. There have been slumps and booms, men have made fortunes and they have disappeared. Nothing is staple* nothing Is established. The whole show, the author makes one feel, is likely to disappear one unfine morning. Even the wealthiest people in America who congregate here sense their own insecurity. They want very much to find their feet on solid economic earth; but it is not there. They are always fearing inflation. Poor devils! The peasant knows more of security than they ever will.

Then there are the golden orange groves, where efficiency is served oy sex appeal and young people are happy because they are young and working together as God made that they should. Then the return to Oxfordshire and work. The holiday was worth the while, it was an enjoyable time for the author and he has made the telling of it so for the reader. PALESTINE “PALESTINE ON THE EVE?” by Ladislas Farago. (Putnam), pp. 286. This book defies classification because it is so many things. It is current history, political interpretation, economic and social exposition and good descriptive writing. Hence the headline “Palestine.” The author went to Palestine during the current year and as he stepped into Palestine he found that he was not an Hungarian, but a Christian, a non Mohammedan. It was a new experience for this much-travelled man to be labelled by his belief ana not by his country. He travelled to the Holy Land by Italian steamer, a fact which he considers worthy of more attention than it is receiving and accounts for the interest which Italy is taking in the Near Eas». The movement of the Jews and the Arabs into Palestine is examined with great care and impartiality. There are Jews who have lived there or their ancestors have, for centune.? while there is a general influx of Arabs into Palestine. There is a legal and an illegal inflow of migrants of both races, there is a definite ascendency of the Jews if thev were permitted to deal with the situation themselves and the Arabs know it.

Justice is meted out to Arab and Jew but the leniency seems to be accorded the Arab despite the fact that he is the turbulent element. The characteristics of the Jews entering Palestine are studied. Those who go penniless go lightheartedly, while those who go with money of their own at their back go with apprehension. The richer Jew seems to be able to use his religion as a shield against giving on occasion, while the poor Jew is as generous as ever. Poverty exists m Palestine amongst the Jews, but it is not a hopeless poverty, although it is very keen. The Communistic settlements are singular in that tney practise Communism but won’t have a Communist near the place. The political Communist is exported to Russia and exchanged for Jews of the Zionist type. Marital relationships have got askew in these communities, but the general morality is really high. Here are an emotional people, living in the sun, which according to Lombroso should engender crimes of passion and yet they are lighthearted people living innocently. The V.D. clinic has closed down in Tel Aviv Hospital. Jewish generosity runs level with Jewish desire Io make a profit and Tel Aviv is a fine city which has been erected by the jerrybuilder.

There are many apparent contradictions in this singularly interesting land. The Jews have employed Arabs in the country and out of loyalty to their employees they will not dispense with Arab labourers despite the unemployed Jews in the cities. Jews improve their lands and create work

for the Arabs and there are in consequence more Arabs living in Palestine l han before Zionism starleu. Tne Arab wants to retain his land, but does nothing to improve it simply Because it must be cut up into many parts on succession. Under such conditions the land is never likely to be improved. The Jew buys his land from the Arab and pays a good price for it. By irrigation he tun\s the wilderness into a fertile plain, but this is a cause of grievance, not of congratulation on the part of the Arab. Bedouin raiders attack Jewish settlements and to wanton damage. This damage is suiiereci under the hand of Britain, but each of the contestants proclaim that rrngiana is their friend. The Jews have established a system of nightwatchmen to deal with the marrauders and in con-

sequence of this activity some remarkable personalities have been discovered. Men who are resourceful in battle and have shown great bravery. The Arabs now fear the vaiour of the Jew as well as his ability. It would appear that this age-olu strife is going to continue, despite the fact that the Jew is a distinct advantage to the Arab as a resident of Palestine.

The book is exceedingly well illustrated and merits full praise on that account as weH as on the thoroughness of the writer’s labours. FICTION

“BARBARA AND THE NEW ZEALAND BACKBLOCKS,” by Mary Scott (Messrs. Thomas Avery and Sons, New Plymouth), pp. 223.

If the heroine of “Barbara and the New Zealand Backblocks” hasn’t made a fortune with the latest rise in wool it should be counted as one of the major catastrophes, for after tile cheerful manner in which Mrs. Scott has made Barbara meet the reverses of those years of bitter memory between 1930 and 1934 she caretainly deserved good fortune. The sketches which make up this little volume of humour and backblocks courage nave appeared at different times in English and New Zealand papers, but it is when they are thus gatnerea together that their value can be appreciated. Well it is for us that, through the bitter year of slumps ana the dangerous years of booms, such writers as Mrs. Scott can point out to us the beauty so frequently left unappreciated, the bravery too often taken for granted, and the saving grace of humour which helps over the stile of adversity. Here are three dozen sketches. Take the mone at a time, to sip of th?»m that the palate may appreciate the bouquet, and you will want to read them through again, once more to discover the fragrance of the bush country which the authoress knows so well. Experience with her the humour which she has extracted from the slump, and you may appreciate a spirit which many thought had gone out with the introduction of the dole. But whatever you do, read this volume right through. Reading it will give you understanding. “SHIP ASHORE,” by Sydney Parkman (Messrs. Hodder and Scouginon, Ltd.), pp. 314.

"Parkman for Adventure” is the slogan the publishers have chosen for the “blurb” on this volume, and even if it does not realise the expectations of the reader it must be adjudged interesting’ at least. The improbable has frequently been so dressed up that it can be accepted by the less discerning without straining too much at the imagination, but there are times when the author requires just that little bit too much here. How»ever, this is an adventure romance which will pass the time.

When Jack Sutton ooaraed the "Merry Maid” after that schooner had discharged a cargo or trepang at Macao, little did he ana captain Bowker think that they were on the threshhold of strange adventures. But when Dr. Justin and his daughter come aboard, chartering the schooner for a voyage in the South Seas without disclosing their actual destination, there appears to be the promise of something out of the ordinary. This develops further when two castaways are picked up in a storm, with their whaleboat sinking under them. How a strange race, descendants of the Puritans of a couple of centuries earlier, was found on a strange shore, and how a treasure was found —to say nothing of romance that followed tragedy—the reader may find in “Ship Ashore.” NEW ZEALAND RAILWAYS ; MAGAZINE I FEAX’I RES BY WELL-KNOWN WRITERS i; regular readers of the Nev. Ze; 'an .; Railways Magazine wil. have an impression that the F ebruary is-’ sue is the best to date. Thr-e of Nev. | Zealand's very-gifted wornea writer ; are seen at their best in sparkling ‘ sketches -Robin Hyde in or the: Glowing Sky—Stewart Islajso and a : Glass Box”; Mona Tracey in “Rak-i way’s End—The Rosslown ...hat ;■ ’ Ross”; Bernice Shackleton in “Rural i Vignette or the Forgotten Branch i Line.” James Cowan carries on • “The Thirteenth Clue,” a burlesque I mystery story, with a very amusmg ■ instalment. In ‘The Land of a Thou-1 sand Golden Beaches,” O. N. Gillespie ; reminds New Zealanders about theii i very remarkable good fortune in the j possession of so many splendid bath- j ing places by the sea. Ken Alexander, | in "Custody of the Parent,” hnr, a

merry skit on the plight of the modern parent at the hands of surging youth. "Our Street” is a very entertaining chat about neighbours by "Tirohia,” a pen-name which coes not disguise the bright style of a wellestablished writer. Other good features are “Maori Fishing,” by Tano Fama; “Sport and Spectators,” by W. F. Ingram; “The Hawke’s Bay Mail,” by John Harland-Barber; “By Rail Through the Wairarapa Valley,” by “Straggler”; “Reflections on Grandmothers” and “The ‘Miseries’,” by “Helen” in the women’s section; “Among the Books,” “The Wisdom of the Maori” and “Pictures of New Zealand Life.” Humorous illustrations by M. Matthews, Ken Alexander and A. S. Paterson are well worthy of mention among the sixty pictures.