Page:History of Adelaide and vicinity.djvu/523

 ADELAIDE AND VICINITY 497 Mr. Simpson Newland I SOME four or five years ago an Australian l)ook by a new writer was published in England, and attracted considerable attention and received flattering notice^s from critics, both British and Australian. Mr. Newland, the author, with one effort, achieved no slight fame with the pen. His was not an ephemeral production, a juggling feat of imagination ; nor was it an impossible narrative, as many such Australian books have ))roved. " Paving the Way," as the title suggests, told the story of the wiry- framed, staunch-minded veterans. When accompanying Mr. Newland through his various adventures, the reader feels that he, too, is an Aus- tralian pioneer ; that in him is the restlessness of the explorer, the strength (jf the forest-tamer, the cunning of the bushman ; in him the dim, mysterious spirit of the lonely man hidden in that silence and solemnity begot of remote isolation. While there comes to him a longing for the excitations and luxuries of the cities, there is yet something calmly satisfying in this pioneer life. The bush, which Marcus Clarke thought so melan- choly, becomes sufficing in its being. No doubt, in places the spirit of it is gloomy and desolate; but there is also song and brightness and Nature's industry. Mr. Newland, in his stories of pioneer adventures, voices the bright side of the Australian Ixish. It might almost be said that, by understanding Mr. Newland's character and the ramifications of his career, we can better appreciate his books, which, indeed, are undoubtedly of a piece with his life and that of those among whom he has lived. The descriptions of scenery are typical; the adventures have substantially happened. Mr. Simpson Newland was born 62 years ago, in Staffordshire, England, and when quite a lad came to South Australia with his father. The latter became a pastoralist at Port Victor, and in that district young Newland lived until he was about 20 years old. Hammer o^ Co., Photo