Marcu 12, 1914] 
NATURE 29 
first is essentially personal, the account of strange 
and curious adventures of individuals; the second 
is largely impersonal, the account of the develop- 
ment of a system of State Socialism. Both works 
tell the story of the reaction between outsiders 
from overseas and the environment which they 
found awaiting them in these distant islands. 
(1) The gallant colonel, typically a frontiersman, 
presents a picture of the Maori wars, and 
demonstrates the dangers of the trackless bush. 
The Maori regarded war as essentially the work 
for men; their curious outlook caused them to 
regard the shot which landed in their “pah” 
during a bombardment and failed to explode as 
the enemy’s method of supplying them. with 
powder with which to continue fighting. Mr. 
Lusk, formerly a member of the New Zealand 
Parliament, states that Maoris nowadays receive 
old-age pensions on the same terms as the white 
men. 
The camp-fire yarns are racy, redolent of the 
soldier’s vocabulary, and make excellent reading ; 
the parliamentarian account (2) of organised atten- 
tion to the well-being of the community as a 
whole community, and not as a congeries of 
classes of society, is calm, dispassionate, careful, 
and on this account eminently readable. 
Steadily, step by step, the State interfered with 
manifestations of private enterprise, prevented the 
permanent establishment of a landed gentry, or 
of a body of yeomen tenant farmers; established 
systems of communication by rail, by telegraph, 
and by telephone, which have contributed greatly 
to a feeling of national unity; freed the country 
from outside influences as regards fluctuations in 
coal prices; secured loans of capital for all the 
people at advantageous rates, so preventing the 
exploitation of the farmers because they were 
necessitous; and, by controlling the development 
of the country, secured a high average of pros- 
perity to all members of the State, without caus- 
ing the growth of either a wealthy or a poverty- 
stricken caste. 
Mr. Lusk is of opinion that New Zealanders 
grew, without definite intention, or without definite 
leadership, to regard the welfare of all as para- 
mount, and he is further of the opinion that New 
Zealand sets an object-lesson to the whole world 
in its regard for all members of the body politic; 
he pays more attention to the principle which 
underlies these progressive movements than to 
the fact that New Zealand is a special case. 
Regarded as a contribution to the knowledge of 
the world, New Zealand’s progress is a striking 
illustration of the unique reaction to its own local 
environment, which occurs in a more 
NO, 2315, VOL. 93] 
or less 
| isolated community. More than a thousand miles 
| zoological 
from its nearest neighbour, with a small popula- 
tion of a million souls, with a large area of cul- 
tivable land, in the happy position of having one 
market only, and that a certain one for its surplus 
of food-stuffs and raw material, almost outside 
the stress and strain of international competition, 
New Zealand has developed along lines which 
were only possible in such comparative isolation. 
But it is hazardous to generalise from so specific 
an example; while, on one hand, it is possible 
to note the fact of New Zealand’s prosperity, it 
is incorrect, on the other, to infer from 
New Zealand’s experience principles of State 
activity which shall be regarded as of general 
application. 
It does not necessarily follow that what is good 
for one million people on the edge of the modern 
business world and mainly occupied and depen- 
dent upon the cultivation of the soil is equally 
good both in method and in result for more than 
forty millions of people, with an industrial popu- 
lation in ratio to that employed on the land of 
roughly four to one, situated at the hub of world 
commerce and the centre of concentration of a 
world-wide competition, B. Ci W. 
Camping in Crete: With Notes upon the Animal 
and Plant Life of the Island. By Aubyn 
Trevor-Battye. Including a Description of Cer- 
tain Caves and their Ancient Deposits. By 
Dorothea M. A. Bate. Pp. xxi+ 308+ plates. 
(London: Witherby and Co., 1913.) Price 
ros. 6d. net: 
Tuts pleasant record of camping experiences in 
Crete falls into two parts. In the body of his 
book Mr. Trevor-Battye, who declines to discuss 
questions of politics and excavations, describes a 
series of tours through the island. With Canea 
as his headquarters, he made trips by steamer 
along parts of the coast, journeyed so far as Sitia 
on the east, traversed the island to Sphakia, and 
again to Retimo, with a long and arduous march 
from Sphakia, vid Mt. Ida, to Candia. The main 
object of these excursions was the collection of 
and botanical specimens, many of 
which have been valuable additions to the South 
Kensington Museum. He succeeded in bringing 
home two ibex kids to the Zoological Society, one 
of which, the male, died from an accident, but the 
female is now at Regent’s Park, and has given 
birth to twins. He gives a delightful account of 
these charming animals. 
He finds that a narrow waist, which appears 
in the Minoan frescoes, is quite characteristic of 
the islanders. He gives useful accounts of the 
| geology, describing the curious high-level plains 
of Homalo and Nidha, Mt. Ida, and Kurnas, the 
