The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 13, Issue 10 (January 2, 1939)
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The music of words, the ripple of neat phrase, the symphony of a nicely-balanced sentence, all these things to delight the literary mind and ear you will find in “Remembering Things,” a collection of essays by J. H. E. Schroder, of the Christchurch “Press,” and published recently by Dent's.
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The New Zealand Department of Tourist and Publicity is to be congratulated on the artistic excellence of its advance brochure in connection with the Dominion's centennial. Of quarto size and printed in colour and sepia on heavy art paper the brochure tells in a most readable way the history and development of the Dominion and shows its proud position to-day. It is an all-New Zealand production with Mr. Arthur Messenger as designer and editor, the Government Printing Office as printer, and New Zealand artists and photographers as makers of the illustrations. The fine colour pictures are the work of Oriwa Haddon, a brilliant young Maori artist, Arthur Messenger, M. A. Poulton, and F. O. Bianchi.
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S. Elliott Napier, the Australian writer, who visited these parts recently in search of health, is a friendly fellow though he is so frail of body that at times one fears he may fade away completely. I have the feeling that the only thing that keeps him attached to life is a sense of humour. His smile, when it appears, would do credit to a fourteen stone optimist with a rich credit in health and monetary savings. Elliott Napier is a most versatile writer. He has written stories, travel books, essays and verse. I did not know of the last-mentioned accomplishment until I was the recipient after his return to Australia of a volume of his poems, “Underneath the Bough,” published about a year ago in Sydney. It is a collection covering forty years of contributions to English and Australian publications. Because of its simplicity and sincerity the poems appealed to me greatly. While I remembered the smile that shone from him in New Zealand, I was surprised, however, to find a sombre, sometimes cynical note in a number of his poems. However, there are by way of a contrast many beautiful poems appreciative of friendship, of Nature and of books.
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There are many fine poems in Douglas Stewart's latest collection, “The White Cry,” recently published by Dent's, but there is one that for sheer page 46 page 47 beauty outshines all the others. It is entitled “To Be Cut In Stone” (In Memory of J.L.S.) and is as follows:—
This lady carried a moon within her breast,
And the white dreaming holiness of waters
Sighed in towards her out of all men's hearts.
When she grew old her hands and hair were moonlight,
And like her undying sister of the sky
Through cloud and wind she shone the tenderer,
Silvering with beauty the dark tide of the world.
Therefore, when the moon rises, remember her.
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