The Assistant Commissioner's Note - Book. By Captain C. H. Buck. (Edward
Stanford. 6s. net.)—Captain Buck writes to supply a need which he himself experienced, he tells us, in early days. He wanted information on many points, and had difficulty in getting it. So he provides here the answers to questions which he asked, or would have asked if there had been any chance of getting them answered. The first dozen pages or so are devoted to the matter of outfit. After that we get to the Assistant Commissioner's duties,—we should say that the in- structions and suggestions are specially suited to Northern India, and the Punjab and North-West Frontier Province in particular. The interesting thing to an outsider—and the writer of this notice does not pretend to be anything else—is the multiplicity of the duties for which the owner of the " note-book " must be prepared. He goes on tour, and has to keep a diary in which the condition of roads, bridges, and public buildings, the prospect of the crops and live- stock, the economic conditions of the village, the state of schools, &c., and the movements of population are recorded. He has to act as Judge,—that is said in two or three words, but means a good deal ; he looks after the police, reports on assessment, calculates revenue, inspects schools, takes a turn at forestry, and does many other things, quae nunc perscribere longum est.
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