Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 8.djvu/98

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. vm. JULY 27, 1907.

the original) which will be beyond many people. Greek is, alas ! only too truly Greek to most people nowadays, and we think that Mr. Rogers would have done well to restrain the results of his culture, and keep to plainer English. His writing, when confined to his own English, is forcible. He has plenty of pungent short sentences, and he carries the personification of streams and mountains to a picturesque length. But he writes more like a don or a literary man than a teacher who has instruc- tion in view.

The account of the early discoverers, English and foreign, is thorough and excellent, as is also that of the natives of Australia, whose myths are credited with " un-Tyrtaean strains." ' The Plan of a Colony in Botany Bay' is an interesting chapter, telling us of hulks, penitentiaries, and various schemes of transportation. In September, 1787, Capt. Phillip started with 212 marines, about 785 convicts, 3 volunteers (two of whom were consumptives), and two years' rations. Phillip was in advance of his age, and wished to keep the convicts apart from the other settlers. The scheme proved hopelessly ex- pensive, but it is probable that the Imperial idea was at the back of it all the idea which dis- tinguished English efforts in Australasia throughout from those or other nations. In 1805 McArthur's agitation about wool made budding millionaires think " in continents, while former emigrants had thought in acres." The troubles, failures, and follies of this and the succeeding epochs are well recounted. Mr. Rogers thinks it probable that after the first period there were not many convict mothers. Free emigrants soon outnumbered them both in ability and in chances of success, being assisted by the proceeds of land sales. We cannot go into these, but we must say that Mr. Rogers appears to us to be unfair to E. G. Wakefield.

When our author comes to New Zealand there is no uncertainty about his tribute to Sir George Grey, one of the greatest of Englishmen and Imperial- ists : " He educed order out of chaos, although he never had as much as 1,400 soldiers. Nor had he a free hand. A curious request which he made to Lord Grey, that he might be allowed to promise anything that the natives required, was unanswered. He could only lead the English colonists by follow- ing them. Just before he came, and just after he left, measles broke out among the natives and killed them by thousands ; otherwise the horizon, which was utterly overcast when he came, showed when lie went away not one cloud, except at Taranaki

and that cloud was as yet no bigger than a

man's hand."

Early gold-digging is said to have done little harm to industry, contrary to the opinion of some ; and the same view is taken of the modern gold- mining of West Australia. It profited, of course, those who supplied the necessaries of life, and Mr. Rogers quotes the case of the "penniless lollipop-seller, who made an easy 6,0007. a year by opening a halfway house between Melbourne and the Victorian mines."

The contrasts between Australia and New Zealand in physical features and early conditions of settle- ment are duly brought out, and there is a chapter on ' The Modern History of the Pacific ' which does justice to such bishops as Selwyn and Patte- son, who "landed alone on unknown islands took boys for a trip, learned their language, gave presents, persuaded the boys' friends to let them go, and carried the boys to school at Auckland, or

later at Norfolk Island, whence they were returned within a year." The methods of the labour traders were a parody of these enlightened proceedings.

The section of ' Geography ' is of the modern kind which includes geology, botany, flora and fauna. We read that Tennyson's ' Brook ' could have been written in New Zealand, but not in Australia, where drought is the particular curse. The same page (ii. 45) refers to " spinifex," which might have been more particularly described for the ordinary man. We get at least a Latin name for it here, which is not vouchsafed when it is men- tioned earlier in the volume.

An instance of the personification we have men- tioned in this : " Besides being occasional spend- thrifts, the western rivers are chronic misers, and hoard their riches in what seems underground cellars of sandstone." Elsewhere mountain ranges are spoken of as being repentant as to their course, changing their minds, and going straight to the se_a in a " humiliating stage." To say that " geology is no respecter of watersheds," when you mean that various metals extend beyond recognized areas, seems to us rather foolish. It is never easy to write simply, as any one knows who has read a consider- able amount of modern school-books by young graduates of universities, and we do not object to cleverness. But we really think that Mr. Rogers might have considered his audience, which should be large, and reduced some of his superfluous orna- ment in the way of allusion and quotation. He certainly has talents for summarizing detail, and we feel sure that his book will dispel a good deal of ignorance.

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