FOOTSTEPS IN THE NORTH
TIDES OF HOKIANGA, by Cecil and Celia Manson; Wingfield Press, Wellington. ‘| HIs is one of the growing number of books about New Zealand that presents life today in some particular region against a background of the past. There is no doubt about it, the Mansons convey the look and feel of modern Northland as readily as they uncover the romantic or tragic or humorous happenings of days before the dairy farms and butter factories. It is good that New Zealanders are becoming more and more interested in these aspects of our country and its history. And it is good that writers are giving time to research in order to portray the past truly, Of a book so readable, and one that so surely brings the past to life, it is perhaps not quite fair to expect greater depth of focus in its picture of the present. The authors emphasise the peace and plenty of the present in contrast with the turbulence of the past. But what of the greater part of Hokianga’s population--the Maori, those who came here because of Kupe’s return? Many who live near to these people take a very dim view of policies that threaten to decimate old-established rural communities and pack off the surplus, young and old, to the towns. Is there some connection between this lack of land, this lack of work, this broken communal integrity, and the so-called "crime waves" around Hokianga’s shores? This book does not even hint at such problems. Perhaps it is enough that these river people should be so delightfully portrayed in the chapter about the cream launch, and that their nearness, to the past should be shown so clearly in the simple remark of one old man speaking of Hokianga’s sandhills: "I blame that chap Kupe, mind you. I reckon he’s responsible. . . They say he burnt the forest and let the sand drift in." ' And it’s good, too, to find these writers devoting a page of appreciation to the beauty and the usefulness of the mangroves. How imagine Hokianga’s tides without the mangroves?
Roderick
Finlayson
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 36, Issue 911, 25 January 1957, Page 12
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350FOOTSTEPS IN THE NORTH New Zealand Listener, Volume 36, Issue 911, 25 January 1957, Page 12
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