Reviews.

“New Zealand Best Poems of 1938,” edited by C. A. Marris (Harry H. Tombs Ltd., Wellington) is always an event for verse lovers in this country. I was not as greatly impressed with this collection as I have been with past issues. The heavy cloud of war abroad and a surplusage of political talk at home have possibly weighed down the minds of our poets. Robin Hyde, I found largely incomprehensible. These intellectual soliloquies where one hears vague snatches of a poet's thoughts do not appeal to me. With a sigh of relief I turned to the simple sincerity of Helena Henderson and of the late Winifred Tennant; the latter's verse in cases strangely and sadly prophetic. C. R. Allen's tribute to E. V. Lucas is a worthy one. I also like the verse of E. D. Morgan, who I think is a recent arrival in the realms of local poetry. His lines are fine and manly. J. R. Hervey sounds an effective and eerie note in “The Avengers.” There are others worth praising, but space will not permit.

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“Men and Cities,” by S. Elliott Napier (Angus & Robertson, Sydney) is a book describing “the Journeying of a Journalist.” Those who were fortunate enough to meet the author during his visit to New Zealand last year will be re-impressed through the pages of this book with the descriptive power, the alert observation and the literary style of Mr. Napier. The wide public he gained through his earlier books “On the Barrier Reef” and “Walks Abroad,” etc., also his book of verse, should be held and added to through this latest volume. With Mr. Napier we go to Tahiti (via New Zealand, with interesting comments on Wellington) on to Panama, Virginia, Newport News and finally to the Dutch East Indies and Singapore. The enthusiasm of the author for strange and beautiful scenes, for unusual people, is infectious. One is carried from page to page with the easy and graceful style of the descriptions. The book is illustrated.

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“Plume of the Arawas,” by Frank O. V. Acheson was first published in 1930 and met with such an enthusiastic reception that Messrs. A. H. and A. W. Reed have now published a second popular edition at a very moderate price. This striking story will always live in the library of New Zealand fiction. Although the story is wholly in the form of fiction it has historical value in that it is closely tied up with ancient record and true Maori atmosphere.

“The Mimshi Maiden,” by Hugh McCrae (Angus & Robertson, Sydney) is a combination of poetical and typographical artistry. It contains only seven pages, but I would rather possesit than many books of fifty times the size. Just listen to the opening lines:

Round the island of Zipangu, Crowned with lilies, silver-sandale'd, Through the amber bending bamboo, In a rickshaw many-candled, Rode a tiny Mimshi maiden, Mimshi, princess of Zipangu, To the temple where she prayed in.