New Zealand Books

Part family memoir, part history and part travelogue, In Tasmania is a sweeping portrait of a little-visited part of Australia with a surprisingly rich and, at times, brutal backstory.

Shakespeare moves to Tasmania with his wife for a bit of peace and quiet after writing a lengthy and critically acclaimed biog of Bruce Chatwin, but the writer in him can't stop digging around for interesting stories and soon he's uncovered two different strands of his family that chose to emigrate to the island. One of them, Anthony Fenn Kemp, was a 'founding father' of sorts who had dreams of being an antipodean George Washington - not that he ever came close.

And Shakespeare doesn't stop there - he details the devastating destruction of Tasmania's native inhabitants - both human and animal - and travels to the four corners of the island to tell its story and that of its first European settlers.

I found this book an interesting and enlightening read and even if you've read books before about the founding of Australia you will find plenty here that is new. The rich portraits of inhabitants alive and dead, the tabloid scandals of yesteryear, the birds, the animals and the rich soil of Tasmania all have their fascinating stories told here.

Out of the three books I have purchased, this will be the one to go with us to New Zealand. I especially like the detailed maps about each specific area. Since this is a once in a lifetime trip my husband and I are planning, we want to know as much as possible by the time we get there. It has wonderful suggestions for traveling on a budget, yet isn't afraid to reccommend the really good places not to overlook because of price. With all the information we have gleaned, we are starting our inquiries and reservations. We can't wait to go!

The book is great. I bought it a few months ago, it goes in all the details of how Muslim population started in New Zealand since the early 20th century.
I advise any body who wants to have a better understanding about Muslims in the west, their culture and how they live, and what problems face them and how they solve it (especially Muslims in NZ), I advise anybody like that to read this book, it is very good and informative.

This is the second time I purchased this utterly gruesome story because my old copy was never returned. It is essentially a true account of a ship-wreck a few hundred years ago followed by rape, murder and ambushes when the good guys finally get to kill the bad guys. The bad guys are sailors turned pirates and I have often wondered if Stevensons "Treasure Island" was inspired by it except that "Treasure Island" is much much more civilised. It all ends up in trials and sentences with hands being chopped off, overall, justice more cruel than the pirates.
The book is really two smaller books. The first is about the wreck and the mutiny and the second is about the skin-divers hunt for the wreck so a lot of the book is about skin-diving. If you visit Perth in Australia, take a few hours to visit the Fremantle museum where the remnants of the wreck are displayed. Also there has been an opera written about it, I believe called "Batavia" it I once saw in Sydney Opera house and its the only Opera I have ever seen that was rated completely unsuitable for anyone squeamish or anyone not adult. (The plot is OK but much of the music is so-so.)

This book is not by Captain Basser but by myself, Jan Roberts - just as it says on the front of the book. The seller of this first edition has got it wrong. The book tells the story of how a small group of Tasmanian Aborigines made a brave last stand against three British military expeditions after them.... it was a group of three women and two men. This story is based on the handwritten records of those involved -and on Aboriginal memories.

BUT - it is not by this Captain Basser - this book seller has put up the details incorrectly - as the cover of this book says it is by Jan Roberts - who also writes as Janine Roberts) Buy the new updated edition from Impact
Investigative Media Productions
Get your act together book seller... for I am the author!

And - the book is now back in print - a new edition came out in 2008

This is the best play I belive he has writin. I enjoy how he has added in some poetry to it and I'm looking foward to maybe seeing it acted out one day. Danny.P.Brady

Vibrant writings that define the Jewish character of the "Down Under" communities, their genesis has three distinct periods of when it happened. Some came to Australia as others from English background as convicts. They have a history exceeding 200 years of settlement. Others came from other European countries during several migrations and as many as could just before World War II.
As the editor of this volume says..."The songs of Zion are sung on every coast." This anthology has interesting and very representative voices that express their respective allegiances to both Australia and New Zealand, in well developed albeit not very large communities. The stories are revealing of their Jewishness in such far away countries, but have a commonality that identifies their emotional and cultural devotion. All the contributors are well known in the region and they make a worthy reading.

This book consists of thirteen articles about the politics involving Australian Jewry. It begins with a nice article on demographics by John Goldlust. Next, Suzanne Rutland tells us about groups that speak for Australian Jews. Next are articles about Jewish participation in Australia's political parties. Jews traditionally supported Labor, but in the past couple of decades, they have become more conservative.

As Philip Mendes explains, Jews tended to support the Left politically, because the Left sided with the liberal idea of political and legal equality for all. Many on the Left criticize the politics of Israel, but that alone is not a problem: many Jews do the same. However, as Mendes tells us, "much of the Australian Left" goes beyond what I would call mere criticism. Some "argue that Israel is a racist and colonial state which has no right to exist." That, to my mind, is a reactionary and racist position to take. In addition, those who take this position "extends the denunciation of Israel to include all Jews - Zionist or otherwise - who are supportive of Israel's existence." Mendes argues that this "ethnic stereotyping of all Israelis or all Jews as 'oppressors' is highly intimidating and offensive to most Jews, and is hardly likely to attract younger Jews to the organized left." My feeling is that those who wish to support social justice and humanitarian causes, Jewish or not, will need to look elsewhere. The problem is that such groups on the "Left" simply do not abide human rights.

William Rubenstein makes a couple of points about Australian Jews, namely their relative geographical and residential stability. That is contrasted to America's Jewry, many of whom have moved from what are now slum areas in New York to suburbs in the American West and South.

What about anti-Semitism? Is it a problem in Australia? Not really. But there are a couple of things worth monitoring. One of them is the "One Nation" party, which obtained 23% of the vote in the 1998 Queensland elections.

How about feminism? There is a good chapter by Barbara Bloch and Eva Cox that discusses the involvement of Jewish women in Australian feminist movements. Many do this from within Judaism, using Jewish ideas, rather than as rebels.

What do Jews think of another Australian minority, namely the Aborigines? Actually, it hasn't been a big issue. As Colin Tatz explains, race politics has not been a violent issue in Australia. In addition, Jews have not traditionally had a great deal of contact with Aborigines. Perhaps that is why they have not made Aborigine rights more of an issue.

The final two chapters deal with what I think are two major issues. First is the problem with a television station, SBS (Special Broadcasting Service). As Chanan Reich reports, that station, in its "World News" programs, has displayed consistently displayed anti-Israeli bias, factual inaccuracy, and editorializing. It called the one pro-Israeli program it showed (in 1996, called "A Nation is Born" written by Abba Eban) "'a partisan view'" but it never called the numerous and overwhelmingly anti-Israeli programs partisan. I consider this a major problem. It appears that this station is happy to make a mockery of journalistic standards just to attack a few Jews, and that ought to concern us all.

The final chapter deals with a big embarrassment to Australia, namely the indecent awarding of the Sydney University Peace Foundation's peace prize, in August, 2003, to an infamous thug, Hanan Ashrawi. Ashrawi has served the cause of death and destruction well, by being a minister of education for Yasir Arafat, where she helped teach children hate propaganda. It would be hard to find a person less suitable for a peace prize. However, there are precedents for such indecency: Arafat himself grabbed a Nobel Peace Prize.

Mendes and Geoffrey Levey discuss the Ashrawi award. I agree with them that the issue ought to have been Ashrawi's suitability (actually unsuitability) for the award, and not the actions of Australia's Jews in protesting it. On the other hand, they feel that by regarding Ashrawi as an extremist, they were refusing to engage in "reasoned debate about her suitability." I can't blame that on Australia's Jews. Ashrawi is as bad as they come, and I think everyone has a duty to say so when she is recommended for such ill-deserved praise. I deducted a star from my rating for the authors' failure to make that point.

I still recommend this book.

Perhaps few people outside Australia will read this book, but as an expatriate Aussie, I found that it shed light on a key group of immigrants who enriched that nation's culture. We see how in the 19th century, Jews were able to take part in political life with almost no restrictions. Fewer hinderances to rising to high office than in Britain itself. The book reminds us of now largely forgotten Jews who became parlimentarians in the various State parliaments prior to Federation.

While during the First World War, we see the rise of Sir John Monash. A Jew who became commander in chief of the Australian Imperial Force in Europe. It is somewhat jarring to note that apart from Leon Trotsky, Monash was the only Jew in modern times, outside Israel, to command an army. In the War, Monash's troops dealt a major defeat to the Germans in 1918, as acknowledged by Ludendorff himself. The book shows good research, by giving prominent mention to Monash. His name is known to most Australians via Monash Uni. But one might wonder how many actually know of the man.

This is an excellent facsimile edition of the original publishing in the 19th century. Be forewarned, though, that the publishers have made an error (which may exiat in the original edition from which this facsimile is taken, I don't know). Page 372 of this edition is numbered in sequence, but is a repeat of an earlier page. Thus, when you are reading of Sir Joseph's adventures in Batavia in November 1770, you are reprised with a page dated May 1770. Infurtiatingly, you then miss the appropriate page and miss, sadly, the death of Tupia.

With that caveat, This is an excellent resource, in some ways better than Captain Cook's Journals (though I feel blasphemous in saying that), and as fien a recreational read as you will find in many a year. It also surprises me how much science they actually knew in the late 18th century.