7 OCTOBER 1949, Page 32

Antipodes Notebook. By Janet and William Beveridge. (Pilot Press. 8s.

6d.) IH this short and unpretentious book to which Lord and Lady Beveridge contribute several chapters each, they record notes and impressions of a visit last year to New Zealand and Australia. Lord Beveridge had been asked to deliver the first lectures of a new foundation at the University of Otago, Dunedin, and afterwards to lecture at New Zealand's three other universities. These tasks took five weeks, and a further three weeks were spent in breaking the return journey for a glance at Australia. Eight weeks is admittedly a short time in which to see the antipodes, but the authors saw a great deal—enough, certainly, to fill a book which is at once enter- taining and thought-provoking, full of lively observation and shrewd comment.