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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 13, Issue 7 (October 1, 1938)

Reviews

Reviews.

“Think and Grow Rich,” by Napoleon Hill (Angus & Robertson, Sydney) is, to use the words of the sub title, an exposition of “the James Andrew Carnegie formula for money-making based upon the thirteen proven steps to riches.” Seeing the book comes from America the average person might think that the author is out to prove his theories by the simple expedient of getting the public to buy his book. However, the author discusses his subject with obvious sincerity, and a manifest desire to help others to become rich. If he succeeds in making successful converts to his religion of the Golden Calf, the world will quickly be peopled with millionaires. Apparently the first step towards the accumulation of millions is the fanatic desire to be rich and a definite idea of the sum desired. The second rule of the race for riches is that entrants must go just one step beyond the point at which defeat has overtaken them. Also you must turn over the pages of your dictionary and neatly strike out the word “impossible.” Complete faith in oneself and in riches is essential. The author elaborates on his plan in a most interesting and I must admit convincing manner. His ideas are wrapped up in the experience of more than five hundred men of great wealth. He shows how these clever people sold their personal services, and one wonders if many of them did not do the job so thoroughly that they sold their souls as well. I am so interested in this book that I will wait eagerly on the possible sequel, i.e., having gained riches how is one to regain happiness?

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“Wind in Spring,” by Alison Mc-Dougall (Angus & Robertson) is a novel of character. There is a quiet strength about the composition of the page 48 story, a keen knowledge of the artistic temperament and a clear cut analysis of three nationalities, English, Latin and Australian. The story itself is colourful and interesting. In short, you can see that this is more than an average novel. We are going to watch the progress of the authoress with interest. The central characters are Freda, the Australian girl, unselfish and artistic, and her lover, and later her husband, Jeffrey, a self-absorbed and brilliant novelist. Their adventures and their interrupted love-making in Spain, then on the verge of its present tragic war, in England with its sometimes superficial art and literary circles, and then in the great Australian continent, build up into a most interesting story.

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“The Modern Ballroom Dance Instructor” is the last word in handbook form of modern dance rhythms, by Miss Adela Roscoe and Mr. Cyril Palmer, British Professional champions for 1937. All the ballroom gyrations are dealt with, from the waltz to the rumba. Robertson & Mullens (Melbourne) are the publishers.

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“The Mysterious Valley,” by G. W. Wicking (Angus & Robertson, Sydney) is a plain story of love and adventure. Harry Dexter, a popular footballer is menaced with T.B. and his employer provides him with a wonderful caravan so that he might seek for gold in the waybacks of Australia. He meets with adventures in plenty through becoming involved in a tangle of mystery and crime. This is a good exciting novel for a train journey.

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“Round and About,” by G. E. Hunter of Wellington, is an entertaining booklet of travel memories. There is no attempt at a connected story of the writer's journeys to other lands, yet the various chapters do not lose in interest on this account. The author is a keen observer of places and people. He takes us to Bombay, London, Britain, Pitcairn, Panama, Jamaica, etc., and records his impression of these places in an unusual yet easy style of writing.

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“Swinging Into Golf,” by Ernest Jones and Innes Brown (Angus & Robertson, Sydney), is appropriately described on its jacket as a book that “will help the great army of labourers to become players.” The American edition of this book has already run into four large printings. In text and diagram it seems to be the last word in simple and effective instruction. This is the opinion of an expert—not myself, for my knowledge of the game is imperfect.

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“The Victorian Era,” by Professor Walter Murdoch (A. & R. Sydney), discusses the strength and weakness of the greatest period in English history. Here, indeed, is a fascinating subject with one of the finest critical writers of the day as commentator. The period is examined mostly through the quality of its literary productivity.

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“The Auld Sinner,” by Cowan Harper (Professor S. Angus, of St. Andrews College, Sydney), is one of the most remarkable stories published by Angus & Robertson. Davy Duncan, a lovable old character in an Ulster village, personifies the title of the story. Though in the eyes of his kirk frequenting neighbours, he is beyond the pale, he has a greater Christianity than they, for he practises the greatest of all virtues, charity. Each incident or chapter of the story reveals his lovable personality, but it is not until after his death that his neighbours realise that old Davy will be waiting at the Gate for them in the hereafter.

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Stephen Gerard, a young Wellington pressman, evidently loves adventure, because of the thrill and the copy there is in it. I believe he has made some remarkable journeys in open boats. One of such adventurings he describes in his book” Strait of Adventure,” recently published by A. H. & A. W. Reed. It is a fitting opening to a very interesting collection of tales about old-time navigators and warriors, of Cook Strait and its environs. In this opening chapter, which has a fine graphic style about it, Gerard describes a lone journey he made in a “somewhat unorthodox yacht” from Lyttelton to Wellington. Then he opens for us many interesting pages of history. We meet Te Puni, Bully Hayes, Ensign McKillop, the lonely lighthouse-keeper on the Brothers, and Te Rauparaha, and visit with the author places coloured with the purple patches of the past—Greville Harbour, Tua Marina, and Cannibal Cave. The book is well-written and well-illustrated, and should meet with a popular demand.

Several times I have referred to the poetic gift of Douglas Stewart, of Eltham. The latest news about this promising writer, now on the staff of the Sydney “Bulletin” is that a collection of his poems, “The White Cry,” is to be published by Dent's. In a preliminary announcement the publishers state:—”Douglas Stewart is a young New Zealand poet whose romantic and swift-flowing verse is enriched with the scene, the mood, and the character of his own country and his own people. He does for the Antipodes what Roy Campbell, a poet of similar impulse, does for Africa. The fine sensuous imagery, the almost Swinburnian rhythm of his poetic verse, the immediate intelligibility of its content, offer another proof of the fact that our younger generation of poets is returning once more to a joy of life, to a faith in love, and a sense of an audience to whom they offer work which can be immediately understood and enjoyed.”

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“The Making of a Scientist,” by Raymond L. Ditmars (Angus & Robertson, Sydney) tells weird and wonderful stories of a scientist's adventurings in the animal kingdom. As a boy the author was the terror of the neighbours because of the strange and uncanny pets he harboured around his home. When his hobby turned to snakes the police intervened. Later, young Ditmars realised his ambition, and became an assistant at a big American museum. Later he journeyed with famous scientists in search of animal wonders. They met the tropical frog that is a giant when young and dwindles to a dwarf with age; they met a multitude of snakes and all manner of extraordinary reptiles. There is a quaint chapter on monkeys, the story of a bear hunt, the quest of the giant bat, etc. Altogether, the book is as engrossing as a detective thriller. Many plates illustrate this beautifully produced volume.