Page:The library a magazine of bibliography and library literature, Volume 6.djvu/211

Rh works regarding its aborigines. Works of Australian fiction have not been omitted, the collection including those of Mrs. Martin, Miss Atkinson, Hume Nisbet, the celebrated works of Marcus Clarke, and those of the now famous Mr. T. A. Browne, better known as Rolf Boldrewood. In close touch with Australia are the works relating to Tasmania, New Zealand, New Guinea and Fiji. The Tasmanian collection comprises all the principal histories, including Parker, Melville, West, and Fenton, the writings of James Bonwick, and the excellent account of the aborigines by Mr. Ling Roth, as well as numerous minor works regarding general subjects. Coming to New Zealand, although the actual settlement of the country is an event of comparatively recent date, the literature connected with it is remarkably extensive and varied; but the Institute is in possession of one of the best and most representative collections to be found in any library, and embracing in addition to Tasman's voyage, the works of Nicholas Busby, Earle, Yate, Polack, Hursthouse, Grey, Thomson, Fox, Maning, Chapman, Heaphy, Terry, Dieffenbach, Hochstetter and Hector, the numerous writings of Mr. Colenso, Wakefield's Adventure in New Zealand, with the volume of illustrations, containing fifteen coloured plates, lithographed from original drawings, John White's Ancient History of the Maori, in six vols., the most complete work of its kind, and the scarce and valuable work of George French Angas entitled the New Zealanders, as well as the South Australians and Kafirs, by the same author, all of which contain numerous coloured plates with descriptive letterpress. In this section there are, also, two works of more than ordinary interest, viz., A Collection of Original Specimens of the Trees, Shrubs, and Flowering Plants of New Zealand; which were collected in 1840, by Mr. H. S. Tiffen, surveyor in the service of the New Zealand Company, all of which were named by Sir William Hooker; his original notes being placed alongside the specimens. This collection was specially made for the New Zealand Company and was presented to the library by our chairman, Sir Frederick Young, who was one of the original shareholders of the company. The other is a curious little work, entitled, The Cannibals, or a Sketch of New Zealand, published in 1832 by the Massachusetts Sabbath School Union, in Boston, U.S.A., consisting of sixty-six pages; but I have been unable to find any reference to it in any of the works relating to New Zealand, and have submitted it to several experts, who have