New Books

SONS OF THE SEA, by T. M. Jones.

Published by Angus & Robertson, Sydney. 4 '6. The author is a sea man torpedo-man on HMAS “Australia”, and this is his second book. It has been written under difficult conditions—while in action, chasing enemy raiders, escort ing copvoys, during air-raids and almost all the incidents are true. It is written in simple language, and is an admirable volume for any lad who han kers after the navy and wants to know how he may go from cadet to senior officer.

Reconstruction—A Programme

FOR PROSPERITY, by James Crockett.

Published by Angus & Robertson, Syd ney. 6/-. A wearisome treatise on “the causes of our present evils, and how they may be oured”. The writer thinks logically, and puts his finger unerringly on the cankers which destroy our so called “democratic” system namely, private land ownership, and uncontrolled money-power. But his remedies are wrapped in masses of archaic verbiage, and they seem impractical, anyhow— mostly a plea for “justice and truth”,

Profits And Price Control:

Addresses by Professor Copland, Com monwealth Prices Commissioner. Pub lished by Angus & Robertson, Sydney. 1/-.

THIS AUSTRALIA! Over 190 pages of strange and fascinating facts about the world’s least-known continent, by Bill Beatty. The Chinese first discov ered Australia; the Melbourne Cup has never been won by horse No. 6 or 7; a little blue-eyed Australian fish had a big share in building Panama Canal; our principal trees shed their bark instead of their leaves; in Sydney, before 1800 AD, a man could buy an English wife for four gallons of rum; the Tichborne family paid out £92,000 in legal expenses before they could prove that Lady Tichborne’s so-called son was actually an imposter, a butcher named Arthur Orton, of Wagga, NSW. There are hundreds of such facts and stories.

Angus & Robertson, Sydney. 4/6.

The Great Boomerang, By Lon

Idriess. Published by Angus & Robert son, Sydney. 8/6. A typical Idriess story of the “Dead Heart of Australia” (South west Queensland, Western NSW, Eastern South Australia); a description of the grim lives of people who fight for exist ence in what is virtually desert, but which once was a land of mighty for ests and great lakes. The climax of the book stirs the imagination, for the author visualises a plan to introduce water into this vast, dust-cursed region, and bring it to life again. It is interesting to note that this is lon Idriess’s 21st book.

Dictionary Of Australian

SLANG, by Sidney J. Baker. (Robertson & Mullens Ltd., Melbourne. 3/6.) Mr.

Baker, who was a Commonwealth Literary Fellow for 1941, has collected well over 2,000 words, terms, and expressions to show that Australia has something to say for herself apart from “bonzer” and “dinkum”. All English and American slang has been weeded out and the result is the native Australian product—terse, apt and colourful. If, having a “Jimmy Woodser”, you should be perplexed by hearing the “barber” threaten to “hoist” a “swippington” nearby, then you should make the acquaintance of this little handbook.

Mr. D. Fahey, operator at Rarotonga radio station, Cl, was in New Zealand on furlough in December. He was accompanied by Mrs. Fahey.

Rev. Vincent Moryan, who had been a Marist missionary for 50 years at St.

Joseph mission station, Uvea Island, in the Loyalty Group (east of New Galedonia), died recently at the age of 85.

Mr. H. H. Hickling, Resident Agent of Mangaia, Cook Islands, who was form erly in Fiji, is at present spending fur lough in New Zealand, with his wife and two children.