AMONG THE BOOKS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVII, Issue 51, 21 December 1899, Page 31

AMONG THE BOOKS.

THE • DOMINICAN 9TAB.'

In our first notice of the Dominican Star — the literary annual edited at the Dominican Priory, Dunedin — we gave a detailed criticism of the budget of e'ever short storie3 which constitute the chief item in its pages. It only remains for us to offer some brief remarks regarding the other features of this excellent magazine — the essays, correspondence, literary and biographical notes, etc. The essays and sketches count an even half-dozen. The first in order gives an interesting and lucid account of the Marconi system of telegraphy as used at sea, in war, etc. Under the heading ' The Fine Arts ' we have a brief and chatty article on Pastel Drawing — a revival of an old method of work which promises to be very fashionable in New Zealand. The article is headed by an excellent reproduction of a fine piece of pastel work done in the Priory Studio. There is also an interesting account (illustrated) of an eight-year-old prodigy who is the youngest art student of the Otago Dominican Studio. Father Tyrrell, S.J., contributes a very thoughtful essay on 'Sympathy,' and ' Bcg-trotter ' gives us a lively and pleasant description of ' A Run in the Rain ' past the peat-holes and other sights of a bit of Irish bog-land. Ellen E. Woodhill has an interesting and accurate description of the process of sluicing for gold, and in the concluding portion of her article gives a very readable account of the shells, sharks' teeth, petrified coral, and other strange curios that are to be found among the goldmines of North Otago. Under the title of ' A Social Misconception ' an anonymous writer — who evidently knows his or her subject — deals trenchantly with the unfair competition of 'cash amateurs' with professional artists ii» the sale of their pictures.

Of the correspondence, the letter from London is written in a free and easy and chatty style, and tells of the voyage thither — Colombo and its divers and traders, the Red Sea, Suez, the Suez Canal, Port Said, Naples (with its beautiful churches and its nasty smells), Vesuvius, Pompeii, Marseilles, etc. The ' Home Correspondence' is from the pen of ' Imogen,' and is a well- written description of sea-bathing and mountain-climbing adventures in and about Whangaroa. In the South African correspondence (illustrated) ' Daisy Dolly Dimple,' despite her babyish name, proves herself an adept at descriptive writing She gives amusing character sketches of the human curiosities one meets on board a passenger steamer, and writes tempting descriptions of Cecil Rhodes' residence, Capetown, with its famous Victorian Road, etc. • Isidora' — of v.hem an admirable full-page portrait is given — contributes an illustrated letter from India. It is cleverly written and contains a singularly interesting account of Hindu and Mahomedan customs — child marriages, the unfortunate position of women both in Hindu and Mahometan households, suttee, polygamy, the laws aifecting conjugal infidelity, caste, etc. One regrets that 'Isidora' — who evidently knows her subject thoroughly — did not see her way to extend her description of native life and customs over the space occupied by the uninteresting biographies, or rather panegyrics, of this or that prince or premier. Six of the nine portraits illustrating ' Isidora's ' letter, would have greatly improved the appearance of the annual had they bten re-drawn in wash instead of being taken direct from coarse wood-engravings. In ' Chats in the Library ' a biief and timely bit of literary criticism is followed by an able disquisition on the anti-Semite movement, in the course of which the writer pays a graceful tribute to the NZ. Tablet. The biographical matter includes life-sketches of St. Brigid, Mother Mary Russell, an interview with Amy Castles, and a lengthy and sympathetic notice of the life of the ex-Empress of the French. Eugcnie-Maiie de Guzman. The writer, by the way, does not inform his (or her) readers that the mother of the beautiful Spaniard was a Scotswoman — Dona Maria Manuela Kirkpatrick, of Closeburn, Dumfriesshire, Countess-Dowager de Montijos (not Montijoss or Montijo). The original poetry in the Dominican Star is nearly all of a high, average of excellence. We except two non-sense-stanzas which are left ' in the air' — without a title— on p. 142.

One piece ('A Prayer ') is from the pen of Lady Mulholland Gilbert. There is plenty of life and ' go ' and merry young faces in the 'G.O.M.V portion of the annual, and the boys' and girls' prize essays are remarkably well written for youthful contributors. Altogether — in literary merit, in paper, letterpress, illustrations, and binding — the Dominican Star for 1900 marks a distinct advance on its predecessor, and is a really excellent magazine.