LAYS OF NORTHERN ZEALANDIA.

Observer, Volume 7, Issue 229, 31 January 1885, Page 8

LAYS OF NORTHERN ZEALANDIA.

By Edwakd SxEr/rox Gautox,

These lays are published, in a fairly bound, volume of 174 pages, the only ornamentation on the cover being a Maori paddle and a mere pouiiainu. crossed. The dedication, which is written in blank verse, is to the author's mother, is rather uneven in the measure. The introduction is a somewhat raphsodical eulogy of Now Zealand, but is not devoid of a, certain degree of poetical beauty and sweetness, though in the couplet, Constellations bright, ami worlds afar, Pale galaxies of glittering stars, the author's Pegasus is manifestly lame. In " Oaneti, a Maori Tale," there is much beauty of description, and the poem possesses great merit as the story of the romantic love of a Maori maiden and Oscar, a seaman, who plight their troth by the sea shore. The sailor promises to return and claim his bride when Christmas comes round again, but during his absence the girl's stern father would compel her to become the wife of a chief named Kewi, to avoid which she drowns herself within sight of her lover's shij). The story is well told, and displays an intimate knowledge of Maori legendary, lore, and customs. Two of the best things in the book are the "Death of the White Spirit," and "The Land of the Tall Kauri Tree." The latter begins : — - They sing of a clime, tlie dominion of roses, Where the sweet balmy perfume floats out on the breeze, Where the nightingale sings when the eventide closes, And the soft winged zephyrs steal out from the trues; Of the cypress and myrtle they sing in sweet numbers, And the beauties that gleam in ai Orient sea ; But give me the land where the wild Maori slumbers, The bright sunny land of the tall kauri tree. "The Tui Bird," and several other 2>oems show that the author has been a close student of nature. There is much pathos in " A Graveyard by the Sea," and others of the shorter pieces, and even the earlier j^oems at the end of the book are not devoid of merit. It is gratifying to find that in a compai atively young colony like this, and amid the bustle and toil of pioneer life, many of our settlers can still find leisure to cultivate the muses, and the "Lays of Northern Zea-' landia," though not free from a certain degree of crudoness in some parts, are simple, touching, and not devoid of poetic beauty, especially where the author describes our northern scenery, vegetation, and picturesque beauties. The book is another evidence of the fact that New Zealand is destined to produce a line of j^oets, who, in doing justice to the native legends and natural beauties of the country, will rival the sweet singers of older lands. ■ Since the paragraph appeared in our last issue the author of " Lays of Northern Zealandia " has written to say that through an unaccountable error the first copies were issued without an index, but the mistake has since been rectified.