NO NEED FOR FURTHER REVISION OF MAORI BIBLE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 13, Issue 45, 24 January 1949, Page 4

NO NEED FOR FURTHER REVISION OF MAORI BIBLE

After five years of painstaking work, the revision of tne Maori Bibie has been completed. xnere win never be any need for a further revision, according to Mr. Yv. W. Bird, Napier, wlio played a prominent part in the work. The New Testament was completed in 1947, and is at presold m England being printed mid bound by tne Jbritmh and Foreign Bibie Society. The Oicl Testament was completed on December 13 of last year, and will be taken to Fngland this year by tne Very Rev. J. .G. Laughton, C.M.G., where it also will be printed. The work was initiated five years ago when Mr. Bird and Mr. Laughton were asked by the secretary of the Bible Society to collaborate in the elimination of typographical errors which occurred in the 1t25 edition. The idea to make a complete revision was born when Sir Apirana Ngata suggested that those engaged in the work should .go l ight through the whole Bibie, studying every verse* to see if si me parts could be put in more correct Maori diction. While u was realised that the early missionaries made ah excellent job, it was considered that some passages did not seem fully expressive in the translated Maori. With this object in view, a committees of the Ngapuhi, Arawa, Tuhoe and East Coast tribes was set up, and the work was then Regun.