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Te Ao Hou, March 1967, Page 60

freely admits—and, therefore, his conclusions may not be valid with regard to persons living in other centres of population in New Zealand. But, since Maoris are migrating in increasing considerable numbers from rural areas to the cities and, in particular, to the City of Auckland, the author's observations in this book will be of increasing worth. There is nothing very startling in the author's main conclusions, namely that intelligent, responsible and hardworking people of any race tend to marry similar people of their own or any other race and, contrarywise and quite apart from any matter of race, people who are dull, irresponsible and feckless tend to wed persons of like characteristics—i.e. persons of high economic or social status usually marry persons of that status and persons of low economic or social status incline to marry persons in that category. The distinction made by the author between ‘fully mixed’ marriages and ‘racially mixed’ marriages is of great importance, and that distinction must be clearly understood before the book, as a whole, can be properly appreciated. The chief interest in this work lies, not so much in its analysis of the relationship, one to another, of the spouses to a racially mixed marriage, but in the effect of such a marriage upon the relatives, children, friends and acquaintances of the respective spouses. Mr Harré is an anthropologist, but this book is not over encumbered with the terms of art of his profession. It is, in the main, easy to read. It should be read by anyone who is, in the slightest degree, interested in Maori-European relationships. More and more people in New Zealand are going to find themselves in situations arising, directly or indirectly, out of the marriage of some relation or friend with a person of a different race, and this work provides a good insight into the natures of such situations.