Australian Scene

Frank Hurley Surveys

IN the last quarter-century many aspects of the Australian scene A , £ a ye been made familiar to Australians and other by means of Frank Hurley photographs.

In his new volume, Australia~A fought" S i^ dy h- Captaln Hurley hai sought, in his own words to present the land and its people in pictures that tell the story” and he says that in the final selection pictures he had many misgivings at having to drop “art treatment” for straight portrayal. tb Th ere it no questioning the fact that this beautifully-produced volume gives a superb survey of Australian cities, industries and rural life. The pattern as a whole is vivid and varied.

Nevertheless, there aye some dull P?{S?®s of material which seems to belong rather to a chamber of commerce bulletin or a local authority’s publicity booklet. This however, is probably inevitable when an endeavour is made to make a single volume representative of a continent, together with its resources and industries.

The photography, “straight” throughout, is up to the high Hurley pictorial standard, although m some of the colour plates the colour is curiously harsh and in others somewhat drab.

But in the final summing-up it can be said unequivocally that occasional quibbles notwithstanding’

Captain Hurley has achieved his objective of presenting Australia as it is in the middle of the 20th century. (Published by Angus and Robertson.

Sydney. Australian price, 45/-.)

To Tahiti In Yacht

“Arthur Rogers’'

A GREAT many people from the Galapagos to Noumea who have come in contact with the Bnxham trawler yacht, Arthur Rogers, owners Tom and Diana Hepworth, and the other crew members who sailed in the vessel for a while, will enjoy Towards Tahiti, by W. I. B. Crealock, as will all who enjoy cruising in an armchair.

“It is a strange name for a yacht, Arthur Rogers; and no one knows who Arthur was”, says the author.

The AR —as we called her —was built as a Brixham trawler in 1929, one of the last of her breed.

But she never fished. From the first she was a social climber, and while still in her cradle she was bought by the Pilot Service to work out of Falmouth.

(Continued overleaf)

“Still unsatisfied, the AR eventually discarded her overalls and became a yacht . . . Tom bought (her) before the war . . . and decided that one day the AR would sail westward with him. He abondoned his life as a professional photographer . . . and one of the main items he took aboard was a wife —Diana. Tf you find a good sea-cook —marry her’, he said. . . .

For Diana, a fashion model, the metamorphosis intq a marine vagabond was startling. . . . But somewhere in her veins salt-water flowed, and within a short time she was the complete seaman and had taken charge of the maintenance of the boat.”

Mr. Crealock tells the story from the time when he joined the AR at Panama in April, 1951, until leaving her at Papeete in January, 1953. (He had earlier crossed the Atlantic with two companions in the 42 ft cutter Content, and has told that story in Vagabonding Under Sail). During that time the yacht made charter voyages from Panama to the Galapagos and to the San Bias Islands.

Then the AR was left at moorings while all hands flew north to Miami to earn some dollars delivering a number of shrimp boats to a Panama firm.

The funds so earned made the continuation of the cruise possible.

The Hepworths, when they eventually arrived at Auckland, re marked that they were at a loss to understand why yachtsmen write so much about places like Tahiti and so little about the Galapagos Islands. These islands they considered the highlight of the entire voyage from England, and Mr. Crealock, with pen and camera, shows something of their fascination, scenically, and as a natural zoological garden.

From there the route was by way of Mangareva, the Marquesas, and the Tuamotu, with near disaster at Nengonengo, and so to Papeete. There is plenty of interest all the way.

Today the AR and the Hepworths, are, we believe, cruising in the New Hebrides. When last heard from they were preparing to sail again from Auckland. (Published by Peter Davies, Ltd., London. Australian price, 18/9.)

Out Of Frying-Pan

Into Fire

■\TEW ground is covered in No Citation, a condensed and straightforward record by a British soldier who, captured by tpe Germans just before Dunkirk, escaped from a stalag in Poland and crossed the Russian frontier to the tender mercies of the then neutral Soviet.

The opening chapters follow a

somewhat familiar pattern. It is after Lance-Corporal James Allan crosses the frontier that his story incorporates an absorbing, factual study of the Russian character and the Soviet system as it affects a Briton suspected of being a spy.

In all probability, Allan would not have survived to write his story if Hitler had not attacked Russia on June 22, 1941, pushing the Soviet into active alliance with Great Britain. As things worked out, he was dramatically freed and permitted to return to England with the first British mission to Moscow, led by Lord Beaverbrook.

Later he was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal, the announcement being published in the London Gazette without a citation. There is no doubt, however, that he was decorated for the courage he showed while in Russian hands.

The book is a grim footnote to the history of British-Soviet relations in wartime. (Published by Angus and Robertson, Sydney. Australian price, 17/6.)

Pleasant, And Very

Innocuous

A GOOD many elders-and betters nowadays have more than a sneaking suspicion that the Victorian era, whatever its shortcomings in some respects, was the golden age of children’s books.

It started with Tom Brown’s Schooldays and, before it ended, it produced such a mixed bag as the tales of Lewis Carroll, Charles Kingsley, Louisa Alcott, Susan Coolidge and, in Australia, Ethel Turner, all of them with followers and conscious or unconscious imitators.

And the distressing fact remains that by comparison most present day books for young people seem a trifle flat and, at the same time, tenuous.

In accordance with this view, it can be said that there is a good deal of domestic and juvenile charm in Helen Fowler’s The Family at Willow Bend and nothing else of any great consequence; Both story and settings are pleasantly Australian, and it is nc detraction of the author’s ability to add that the book does not possess the staying power of, say' Ethel Turner’s early productions.

Line illustrations are by Irene Maher. (Published by Angus and Robertson) Sydney. Australian price, 12/6.)

Dog Watch Issue

For 1955

TO all who are interested in ships—and what Islands peoplt are not? the Annual Doo Watch, 1955, just published by tin Shiplovers’ Society of Victoria fo:< the Shiplovers’ Societies of Aus< tralia, will be welcome fare.

One of the articles in this issn. concerns the Salamis, which ii mentioned in this month”

Mailbag.

There is also an interesting stor; of the research work of the nom magnetic vessel Carnegie, compile* from material supplied by Oscar G Nordman, of Papeete, who wai attached to that vessel.

Like PIM, the Shiplovers’ Society of Victoria is celebrating its 25tl anniversary this year.

The society has become thi principal repository of shippim history especially sailing-shh history—in this part of the worlc and as the story of the Pacifii Islands is closely linked with thr history of shipping, the Dog Watcl has a special appeal to a., interested in Pacific history. (The Annual Dog Watch, 1955, by Ship: lovers’ Society of Victoria, Box 1169 K G.P.0.. Melbourne, Vic. Australian price 4/6.)