BOOKS OP THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2498, 26 June 1915, Page 9

BOOKS OP THE DAY.

"THE DEAR OLD MAORILAND." Old New Zealand is gradually but surely being replaced by a New Zealand in which so muck that was picturesque and romantic in the lives of her people, both pakeha. and Maori, is no longer prominent. Much of it, indeed, has disappeared, never to bo resurrected save in memory. Such a book, therefore, as "New Zealand: The Dear Old Maoriland," by Frances Brewer Lysnar, F.R.G.S. (Auckland: The Brett Publishing Company), is very welcome, •providing as it does a series of wetl.written essays and sketches in which the romantic side of New Zealand lifo iu the "good old days" of early colonisation and settlement, and tho late (Maori wars, is made agreeably manifest to the present-day reader. The curious manners.and customs, the traditions and history of tho Native race, afford material for some of Mrs. Lys- - " r's most readable sketches, and the inio beauties and thermi.l wonderß of .e Dominion also receive attention. :rs. Lysnar writes as one who has jiade a special study of Maori mythology, traditions, and history, but she wisely avoids crowding her pages with Jong lists of Native names, and when she uses a purely Maori term she generally accompanies it by a pakeha equivalent. The arrangement .of the sketches and essays might have bean better, for subjects and scenes, both ancient and modem, are discussed with no attempt at chronological order. Still I know of no book in which, purely latter;day features not being neglected, : • the romance of the oldeii times is more pleasantly suggested or in which a better description, for popular reading, of the Native race, can be found. A specially valuable and interesting feature of the book is its great wealth of appropriate illustrations. The author has been exceedingly fortunate in collecting such a large number of excellent illustrations, some being reproduced from original paintings' and drawings, whilst others are taken from well-selected photographs of Native scenes, weapons, and costumes, as well as forest and al•pine scenes, and the more famous sights of the winders of the thermal region. Mrs. Lysnar's book will, I trust, 'have a large sale. It should prove exceptionally popular as a gift book for friends in the Old Country and elsewhere. The typography and half-tone work reflect special credit upon the publishers, and the binding is simply tasteful and ap /propriate.