White Maori

New Zealand Listener, Volume 19, Issue 482, 17 September 1948, Page 5

White Maori

Y an interesting accident the te-issue of Maning’s Old New Zealand* and The War in the North has coincided with the mild crisis in Maori affairs precipitated by the Rugby Uniona situation that would have been greatly enjoyed by the author himself. It has never been quite clear whether it was the Maori or the Pakeha’ whom Maning most wanted to ridicule: it seems to have been the Maori chiefly in one book, the Pakeha chiefly in the other: but he was far too cynical from his first day ashore to let Gne race or the other appear romantic. It is a coincidence with- . out significance that he breaks into a Maori-Pakeha controversy 115 years after his preposterous landing at Hokianga, but if he could have done it in the flesh, and put his reactions on record, no one . would have known whose tail had ‘been twisted. He was malicious, nearly always a farceur, and occasionally and deliberately a clown, but he was absolutely brilliant as a teller of tales, and his humour has kept him fresh for 80 years. But for several years it has been difficult to buy him, and it thas never been possible to buy ‘him well bound and printed at a price . that. every. reader could afford. Now it is possible. The new issue ' is as pleasant to read as earlier issues have been unpleasant. More labour could have been put into _ the editing, more talent and less money into the dust jacket; but it is impossible to get perfection to-day for 12/6. We get so much -including ‘ten pages of illustra-tions-that the buyer who wants more is like the guest who complains of the Christmas cake if his Piece contains no coin.

*OLD NEW ZEALAND. By a Pakeha Maori. Whitcombe and Tombs. _