Mate'sgoinorright

The mortality rate among small literary magazines is notoriously High in New Zealand. One, however, which appears still healthy in its recently published fifth issue is "Mate."

Printed in Auckland and edited by Robin Dudding, it has pleasing format and typography. And this natty apparel clothes a stimulating body of contributions.

The poems are interesting without being specially impressive.

Some examples: Hone Tuwhare's effective imagery seems to need more direction; Gordon Challis's admirable concepts sometimes bump on a knot in the rhythm. The trouble in the poems generally is that poetic vision, fresh and arresting imagery, is contained in somewhat clumsy framework. The exception is Louis Johnson's "Prometheus," a comparison with which should show the point. The greatest strength of this issue of "Mate" lies in the prose, O. E. Middleton has the master craftsman's touch in "Cutting Day," an exquisite evocation of scene, character and emotion. Maori idiom and attributes are caught with rare precision by Noel Hilliard in "A Piece of Land."

Other prose contributions are interesting, but the pieces by Middleton and Hilliard would alone be worth the three shillings.—J.P.

"Talking of bathrooms, I have something to ask of your ladyship. I should like to paint you."

"Not in my bath?"

"No, in the nude."

"But I am fearfully thin, Mr Jimson."

"I want the bony structure to go with the face."

"I'm afraid my husband wouldn't approve."

"He needn't look. And it will cost you only a hundred guineas—a cheap price for immortality."—Culley Jimson in "The Horse's Mouth" by Joyce Cary.