New Books

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXV, Issue 15, 11 April 1907, Page 33

New Books

(Whitcomibe and' Tombs, Christchurch, Wellington, ' and Dun&din.) , The enterorising firm of Whitcombe and Tomibs deserve well of the public for the series of handsome works which they are publishing in connection with the early history of New Zealand. A notable work of this kind, which will be welcomed by students of the old Maori lore and -of the transition period of our history, is Mr. J. A. Wilson's ' Story of Te Waharoa and Sketches of Ancient -Maori Life and History '• (pp. xiv.-256, BVo., cloth lettered 1 ). The stirring story of the remarkable chief, Te .Waharoa was originally published in 1866. The facts related therein were gathered by the 'author irom Maoris, Pakeha-jviaoris, and missionaries who were contemporaries of Te Waharoa, and who were well acquainted with him, and at a time when; the memory of those red and whirling days was still fresh and vivid. The author tells us that ' very repelling scenes -have been omitted ' from Ms narrative ; but his work possesses none the -less the terrible fascination that 'gafch-ers around a moving and well told story of invasion, " siege, battle, savage slaughter, and cannibalism at the most critical and deadily period in all Maori history, when the race itself, ran the risk of extinction with the white mam's weapons. In t/he sixty years of the life of that hard 1 hitter (who passed out in 1839) the Maori race went through an epoch of blood and tears. Maori and missionary, warrior and trader— the old order and the new— jostle each other in the interesting story that Mr. Wilson has to tell, and it contains no dull pages. We turned, perhaps, with most lively expectation to the author's ' Sketches of Maori Life and History ' which forms the second part of the work. The author gives an extremely interesting 'account of the Maui-Maori people that inhabited New Zealand ' before the coming of the Maori from far Hawaiki. To this subject he devotes over 30 pages of the book to these unwarlike people— the « white New Zealanders with" red hair ' —who were easily defeated and broken -by the martial Hawaiki-Maoris, and of whom traces were (says Mr. Wilson) ' frequently visible in the Bay of Plenty fifty years ago.' A lengthy account of the Hawaiki immigration (with a supplementary chapte") constitutes a feature of this part of Mr. Wilson's learned and painstaking .work. Eight chapters - are devoted to much in T teresting tribal lore and history, Maori communism, etc. The book is well illustrated, and is an important contribution to both the Maori and early European history of New Zealand. The same firm of publishers has issued a Maori version of the story of H-inemca, from Sir George Grey's ' Polynesian Mythology.' It is enriched with a vocabulary and notes by the Rev. H. J. Fletcher. It is a compact little volume (pp. 28, cloth, Is 6d), and enables the student to obtain with a minimium of trouble, a reading acquaintance with the Maori language awd with one of the most beautiful "legends of our native race.

A stands for Asthma, the patient may fret ; B for the Breath he hardly can get ; C for the Cold and the terrible Croup ; D for the Dollars the doctor will scoop ; E for the Ease that one longs -for in vain ; F for the « Floo," it is at one again 1 ; G for the Giant— -G^eat Peppermint Cure— H for the, Health that follows it sure.