It is fitting that such a book as “The Farmer's Wife” should appear during centennial year because it is a sincere and distinguished piece of writing in praise of New Zealand soil. The writer of “The Farmer's Wife” is Mrs. Ann Earncliff Brown, one who knows the soil as well as any farmer's wife, for she confesses she has never pierced its mystery. The joys and the sqrrows of farming during many years in both islands have been experienced in large measure by Mrs. Brown, and surely the harvest she has reaped for our benefit—the harvest of beautifully strung words is a rich one. Her word pictures are as simple and as beautiful as a daisy chain, yet here and there are richer colours. Occasionally her sentences are close to prose poems; she has her own felicitous choice of words. Will I be bold enough to place her as a New Zealand Mary Webb—that is in her verbal outpourings in appreciation of Nature? Well, hardly the sombre orchestration of words of the Shrop-shire writer—more of the simple pastorale—though surely a suitable melody to be heard from a farmer's wife.

In her book Mrs. Brown turns over the simple calendar of happenings of farm life and tells of them with that charm that only a woman of cultured expression can give. We open the book in spring and we hear and see the trembling of Nature's curtain. Yet, while telling of the glories of Nature, our farmer's wife has her feet firmly planted on the soil and turns ever and anon to tell us of practical things, even of the products of a super mechanical age. As we journey on to summer we meet the farmer himself, and Martha, the big-souled country woman, and others of the household. The author glances from the kitchen table, to mention a recipe or two, and looks through the window at the ripening fields, at the flowers, crops, fruit and animals. These beautiful things of Nature come unobtrusively into her recital. An apt quotation adds colour to the story, a snatch of dialogue, or some philosophic observation from the writer herself. So we journey on through the four seasons living the life, of the farmer's wife, loving it, sorrowing with her and smiling with her.

The book is a gracious and charming tribute in words to the wonderful woman who has helped to make this country what it is today.

Whitcombe and Tombs have given the book a worthy format, and reproduced the illustrations in a way to display their full artistic value.

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And now for another New Zealand book of a totally different nature. We are about to leave the select library atmosphere and enter a small news-agent's shop and snap up for a train journey a paper-backed book of gaudy coloured cover—” Outside the Law in New Zealand,” by Charles Belton. Until recently the author was a detective, and resigned with the intention of entering the political arena. The story he tells is an interesting one. He has written over fifty chapters covering as many aspects of a police constable and detective's routine. Opium dens, gambling raids, murderers, thieves and the like provide plenty of incident. Considering it is a paper-back, the publication is well-bound and clearly printed by the Gisborne Publishing Company.

“Association Copies” of New Zealand books have not yet come into their own in this country. By an “association copy” I mean a book autographed by, or accompanied by a letter or with a bookplate attached belonging to the author. The term “association copy” might also be extended as containing the signature or inscription of some outstanding figure contemporaneous with publication of the book. For instance, I regard as an “association copy” a bibliographic treasure of which, recently, I became the possessor—a copy of Kirk's “Forest Flora of New Zealand,” signed by Richard John Seddon and presented to the Bishop of Salisbury.

To my mind a worthwhile book is infinitely more pleasurable to read and to handle when it contains the signature of the writer or that of some notability of the period. Yet, at book auction sales in this country I notice that there is very little excitement when it is announced that a book is to be offered containing the signature of, say, Sir George Grey, William Pember Reeves, Wakefield or possibly Bracken. In other parts of the world, autographed or “association copies” are treated almost as objects of reverence. However, it is satisfactory to observe that interest in New Zealand literature, particularly the books of the last century, is steadily growing and with it will come an increased regard for “association copies.”