ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVI, Issue XIII, 28 March 1896, Page 348

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.

Notice to contributors.—Ann letters or MSS reciered by the Editor of the New Zealand Graphic will be immediately acknowledged in this column.

Pemberton Pembrooke. —Your story has been duly read and commented upon by our reader. I regret to say that the verdict is not altogether favourable, but I will quote the opinion given Pemberton Pembrooke is evidently quite a ’prentice hand in story writing. The tale under consideration does not run as fluently and easily in style and expression as one could wish, and unfortunately, the spelling and punctuation are such as, despite the masculine nom de plume, lead me strongly to suspect a feminine hand guiding the pen, and, in the interest of the story, forgetting her third standard lessons. For instance, cruel is spelt crual ; testily, testly ; reigned, reighed ; being, beining ; nervous, nervious; foam, fome; saddle, saddel ; passed, past; crisis, cricis, etc. In the last case the heroine was dangerously ill. and no one could be expected to have time to attend to such minor matters as spelling. It is hardly correct to say, ‘he was terrible lame,’ yet Pemberton Pembrooke does use this expression. Possibly it is only a slip of the pen. The actual idea of the story is not at all a bad one, and is, in fact, a very interesting occurrence in the heroine’s life, and I feel sure all who begin to read the tale will certainly finish it, in order to find out how she escapes from the terrible dangers which threaten her life. But if Pemberton, etc., sends the editor any more MSS., I would humbly suggest that he —for the name is that of a man—should leave a margin on the left side of the paper, and sufficient space in the corner to secure the leaves together without interfering with the writing.’