"Dark River"

A New Islands Story By Nordhoff and Hall

From Our Own Correspondent.

Papeete, Oct. 1.

THE bubble reputation—however glitter ing- and iridescent it may be in other lands —casts no spell upon the criti cal judgment of a book, the mise-en soene of which is Polynesia, when it comes to be read by older residents of the Pacific islands.

There are volumes now in circulation by authors who have achieved fame and fortune, and their works acceptance and regard, which, nevertheless, are anathema in the South Seas on account of the pro found ignorance of the Islands life and custom, of history and legend, of native character and motive, that stares out of their pages.

The unqualified approval by South Seas critics of Messrs. Nordhoff and Hall’s “Dark River” (lately published as a serial in the “Saturday Evening Post” and presently to be brought out in book form) is, therefore, a hall-mark attesting accur acy of incident and environments, authenticity of drama and character pre sentation.

In its pages—as we read —we have met men and women we knew in days long past; have lived again in remote places whose beauty cast a never-ending en chantment over our memory; have sensed about us the fragrance of romance which has held many a European in these fas cinating Islands.

What is so satisfactory about Nordhoff and Hall’s work is that there is in it no trace of the sentimentality which makes much of the South Sea literature so sick ening.

It is a plain tale, well told; but the charm of style, the certainty of touch, capture the reader’s mind so that, for the time, he is actually living in the Islands and sharing in the daily life, with its problems and comedy and tragedy, of those about him.

Mr. J. Fairbaim, of the Police Depart ment, Western Samoa, arrived in New Zealand recently on furlough.