NEW ZEALAND.
New Zealand: the Country and the People. By Max Herz, M.D. (T. Werner Laurie. 12s. Gd. net.)—The special interest of this book is that it is written by a clever, cultivated, and sympathetic German who spent some time in New Zealand. His amusing rhymed preface recalls the old Persian poet's reasons for writing a book, and the pleasant anticipations thus raised in the reader's mind arc ably carried out, even if he may sometimes smile at the weightiness of Teutonic wit. He tells ns first about " the country," with its curious beasts and birds, the strangest of them being, perhaps, the little " tuatera," that survival of "times previous to the origin of birds." (The present writer saw one lately living sedately in a museum alongside of its fossil contemporaries.) The Maoris, their peculiar arts and sinister customs, the geysers and the hot pools, the not loss active politicians and legislators, the wonderful beauty and charm of the Sounds, the rivers and the mountains, are in turn successfully brought before us. Dr. Herz begins his last, and in some ways most interesting, chapter by asking : "What characteristics can be ascribed to the 1,000,000 who dwell in this fair country ?" He comments on the lack of general mental cultivation, which seems to him natural and inevitable, in the circumstances, and while lamenting certain symptoms of snobbishness in the men, and a want of romance in the women, he praises them for their kindness and hospitality, adding that "the New Zealander is what not every one can claim to be—a happy man in a happy country." His criticism of the volunteer " Army " is worth more notice than we can give it. He says that it " will fail miserably when there is a real foe to be kept out," for the young men who will not now submit to irksome discipline will find it impossible suddenly to acquire that " highest efficiency " which is " absolutely necessary" to success. The book is full of beautiful photographs, and is completed with a map.
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