"POENAMO" REVIEWED

New Zealand Listener, Volume 28, Issue 716, 2 April 1953, Page 5

"POENAMO" REVIEWED

Sir,-The new edition af Poepamo, by John Logan Campbell, has been the subject of two rather careless reviews. Mr. David Hall in The Listener some weeks back credited Miss Stevens with the condensation of the first four chapters. A bibliographical foreword in the book states: "Although Miss Joan Stevens has provided the introduction to this edition of Poenamo she has not been responsible for editing the text." Dr. G. H. Scholefield in the ZB Book Review of March 15 mentioned that the Campbell mss. was, in the Auckland Public Library. As stated by Miss Stevens in her introduction, the mss. is in the Auckland Institute Library. Further, Brown and Campbell did not travel together from Australia to New Zealand as suggested by Dr. Scholefield. Though they had previously met in Australia, they came to New Zealand separately, meeting again by chance at Herekino. Dr. Scholefield did, however, mention in his review that the reader of Poenamo might find it difficult to decide which parts of the text were Campbell and which Cowan, which Stevens and which a further but unnamed editor. Reviewing two other New Zealand books on the same panel, Mr, Frank Simpson made some very pertinent remarks on the provision of adequate maps, indexes and footnotes, and the importance of textual accuracy. Mr. A. R, D. Fairburn,

as chairman, brought the session to a close. He agreed with Mr. Simpson on the importance of such matters in the reprinting of New Zealand books, and expressed a certain parochial satisfaction that the. criticisms levelled at the books reviewed by Mr. Simpson did not apply. to Poenamo, I am at a loss to understand Mr. Fairburn’s satisfaction on this point. Dr. Scholefield had pointed out quite clearly that the editing of Poenamo was not above criticism. In my opinion, though the dust jacket is attractive, and the book itself pleasant enough reading if one happens to like Campbell’s brand of archness and whimsy, as an _ historical text this new edition of Poenamo is more or less useless because of the hotch-potch editing to which it has been subjected by too many people, Perhaps Mr. Fairburn would not have expressed the opinion he did had he either read Poenamo or listened to the reviewer on his panel.

R. M.

ROSS

(Takapuna).