CURRENT LITERATURE
THE AMATEUR SETTLERS. By Lord and Lady Apsley. (Hodder and Stoughton. 10s. 6d.)—The European War has a deal to answer for, and before 1914 the eldest son of a peer who happened to be a Private Parlia- mentary Secretary to a Minister would scarcely have proposed to test settlement conditions in Australia by going out as an " amateur settler." It is certain that he would never have thought of taking out his newly-married wife to see if he and she could earn three pounds a week and live on it in the back blocks. But from 1914 to 1918 we got used to the idea that any man could do a man's job, and any woman a woman's. Some people, and Lord Apsley may be congratulated on being one of them, think the idea too good to drop. The result is a really useful good-natured readable little book telling the British people in great detail what the possibilities of Australia are for both sexes. Lord Apsley tried them first as a bachelor, and (as " George Bott ") gave satisfaction to two employers as a farm hand. Then he and his wife (as Mr. and Mrs. James) joined a group settlement near Busselton, in Western Australia, when he worked under the group foreman's orders while she cooked and cleaned up in the shanty. Fortunately, she had never done a hand's turn for herself before, and the testimony that she could do it, and stand doing it, is worth all the more.
They have written the book in sections, and each has much to say that is shrewd and interesting. The only negligible part is Lady Apsley's account of her motor journey through Northern Australia, because the like of that has often been written before. But the rest is fresh, original and very pleasant. Also, if Lord Apsley goes on legislating, he will have added a hundred per cent. to his efficiency in Parliament.
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