"U T U."

Auckland Star, Volume XXV, Issue 223, 18 September 1894, Page 3

"U T U."

"Utu," the Maori term for payment or revenge, is the title of a well written little story which has just made its appearance amongst colonial publications. - Replete with''incidents of an intensely interesting character taken from real life, and from reliable records of the history of Maori.life and customs aboub the end of laab century, the story sustains the interest of the reader almost from the opening chapter till the final words. The construction is so skilfully arranged that one cannob resist taking a certain scientific as well as dramatic interest in watching how each, incident inevitably leads to the nexb, and bow the plob gradually thickens till the time for the .final coups de grace it reached. In writing thia libtle volume, which is dedicated to Sir George Grey, the author has certainly produced a book which will amuse, and in some measure instruct, the thousands who will be anxious to read it, and it is not too mnch tp say she has at once taken a prominent place amongst colonial novelists. In language thab in itself haa quite a charm about it, tbe story relates how a rejected suitor for the hand of a rich heiress in the Old Country carries out with grim mercilessness his revenge upon everyone who has been concerned in his humiliation, and then endeavours to eecape from justice by accompanying a French exploration party, to New Zealand which ab the time referred to in the story, is • a newly-founded colony and inhabited only by the Maoris. The merciless crimes which the principal character is credited with are in turn avenged at the handß of the heiress herself, whom he imagined he had quietly disposed of by drugging her previous to his escape from England, • but who subsequently recovers, and mysteriously •' turns up again " as a member of the party on its way to the South Seas. In the disguise of a valet, the young lady has gained admission whilsb in Paris into the service of her father's murderer, and after their arrival ab the Bey of Islands, proceeds, with the aid of a confederate, to put her plan of revenge*" into effect. The last twenty chapters contain a minute description of ancient Maori life, deftly brought in to render the Btory of moro than ordinary interest to New Zealanders. The work, which has been printed ab bhe Stab Office, so far promises to command an extensive circulation.