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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 11, Issue 12 (March 1, 1937)

Reviews

Reviews.

“Scapel and Sword,” by Sir James Elliott, M.D. (A. H. and A. W. Reed, Dunedin and Wellington), contains the reminiscences of a New Zealand surgeon. The book teems with interesting experiences dealing with the author's early days in Wellington, his adventures as a medical student at Edinburgh University, his experiences on the staff of a field hospital in the Boer War and later as senior medical officer in the famous Maheno during the Great War. Small wonder that with such great material to work on the author has written a most interesting volume. Sir James displays a keen sense of observation and an encyclopaedic knowledge. His intimate glimpses of a doctor's life provide some of the most interesting chapters.

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“Check to Your King,” by Robin Hyde (Hurst and Blackett, Ltd., London; Whitcombe and Tombs, Ltd., New Zealand agents), is a further revelation of the amazing versatility of New Zealand's most talented writer. Using a “novelist's license,” Robin Hyde has built up a fascinating story of Charles, Baron de Thierry, “King of Nukahiva, Sovereign Chief of New Zealand.” For months “Robin Hyde” has turned over old papers and records in Auckland to reassemble in her characteristic style, a storv that is all the more remarkable because it has been built on fact. She follows the inimitabe Charles from Cambridge to Panama, to the Pacific where he is made King of Nukahiva and then to New Zealand and his “Sovereign Chieftaincy.” The book is better than a modern novel for wrapped up in it is a most interesting biography. Just a word of advice to the reader who may be dismayed by the somewhat embarrassing cleverness of the opening pages. These opening chapters are worth while and lead to an engrossing narrative.

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“Sheep Kings,” by Joyce West (Harry H. Tombs, Wellington), is a well-written, nicely balanced story of love, tragedy and adventure in New Zealand. There is a maturity of style about this writer. The novel deals with the life stories of three generations of Stafford Kings, a fine old English family, the surviving descendent of which emigrates to New Zealand in the days of 1841. He marries a half-caste Maori maid, who meets her death with two of her family of three in the Te Kooti outrages. The father and the son remain, but the latter brings tragedy into their lives. Another of the line of Stafford Kings is born, but shadows follow fast on the sunlight. All the time a mighty sheep station is growing and the later Stafford King is the Sheep King who eventually faces bankruptcy in the wool slump of 1930. In an artistic final chapter the authoress shows as the last survivor of the Stafford Kings peacefully and silently going hence as he sits in his chair—just like old Jolyon in “The Forsyte Saga.”

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“Contract Kernels Up-to-Date,” by Myra A. Millingen (Angus and Robertson, Sydney, is the latest word, I believe, in Bridge, and embraces all the recent features of the Culbertson System. This is the fourth edition of a book that has gained high encomiums from Bridge experts in England, America and Australia.