LITERARY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 244, 12 October 1907, Page 10

LITERARY.

THE ANCIENT IVIAOBI. "Maori Life in Aotea," by Johannes C. Andersen.—Whitecrnbe and Tombs, publishers. 15/. A comprehensive attempt has been made in this book to picture the life of the Maori before the days of European settlement. The scheme upon •which, the author has worked is interesting. Briefly he takes the reader into the Maori kianga, and as a preface to the better understanding of the subject tries to imbue him with the spirit of the time and people in the following of their ordinary avocations, in the relation of their mythology, their joys and sorrows, their pleasures and conflicts, and the superstitions that stand with them for a religion. It is a difficult task, and in its accomplishment ilr Andersen has in a measure met with signal success, just as he has in some respects signally failed. As a book for the careful student, wishful to place himself in sympathy and understanding with early Maori ways, it deserves all praise; but as an account to interest the casual reader it is too involved "with technicalities, too prolific of detail and circumlocution in expression, to escape the charge of being wearisome. But the employment of the minuteness of detail so characteristic of Maori thought and narration in their own language, affords the strongest evidence that if the vividness of the picture is often, blurred, the fact is due to a determination to adhere as closely as may be to the spirit and method of the Maori historian. The amount of work that is involved in acquiring the material is in itself enormous. A recognition of this is to be found in a foreword to the volume by Mr. A. T. Ngata. "It is little enough tribute to Mr Andersen," "writes Mr. Ngata, " to s-ay that he has amassed a great deal of information, and succeeded in presenting a fairly accurate, a readable and entertaining description of early life in Aotearoa and Te Waipounamu. His object seems to have been to convey through the lips of the traditional heroes and heroines of pre-pakeha days a conception of their material, moral, and religious environment." In printing it has been thought advisable, by capitals and special type, to distinguish proper names, and these, to facilitate pronunciation, are further divided into their component syllables. The device of varied lettering gives the pages a somewhat peculiar appearance, but his its usefui as well as inartistic side. A recital of the book's contents is not possible, hut its chief features may be briefly indicated. Their strange customs of tapu, mum; their land tenure, their maiw; their beliefs concerning the creation of the universe, of the gods and man, utf the soul of man and its existence before and after death; their ceremonies connected with witchcraft, birth, marriage, death, education, war; their games and music; their arts of house and canoe building, mat-weaving, dyeing, ornamentation, tattooing; their customs when fishing, hunting, and warring; , their fables, proverbs, omens! all have been woven into that strange web which constituted the daily life of a fine uncivilised race of the stone age, now surviving only as a semi-civilised remnant. As their daily life was indissolubly connected with their land, the natural history of that land has also been dealt with so far as it affected them. The habits of all birds important as yielding food, feathers or omens have been described, including those of the moa with the probable legends of its extinction; so_ too with fishes and shell-fish; "with trees, which furnished material for their houses, canoes, -weapons, carved bones, etc., leaves and gum for their scent, fruit for their food, bark for their dye, remedies for their ailments. Over a hundred of their curious and often beautiful karakia, including spells, love-songs, laments, war-songa, boat songs, etc., have been quoted in full, and many of their characteristic tales are told, unshorn of their wonder and magic and mystery. A thin Uiread of narrative connects the whole, but it has been so written that every chapter is practically complete in itself, each dealing with a specific subject or phase of life. We cannot speak authoritatively of the accuracy of the author's facts and interpretations, but may with some assurance accept Mr Ngata's pronouncement on this point. The indexing is on a thorough scale. Mr. Andersen in his preface makes an appeal for a greater recognition of early Maori subjects in painting and sculpture, and this , cause is one which his book is calculated to assist greatly.

Fiction easily beats in popularity every other class of literature combined, in so far as the public served by the Wandsworth (London) free libraries are concerned. This is made clear by the annual report of the Free Libraries Committee. The borough, which includes Clapham, Tooting, Streatham, Putney, Balland and Roehampton, has eight libraries, and from tnese during the year under review 649,372 books of various kinds were; issued for home reading— rather more than two for each unit of the population. Of this total 454,072 were works of fiction, showing a ratio of just under 70 per cent of the total, and leaving only 30 per cent for the numerous other classes into which the books are divided. Of "juvenile" books nearly 80,000 were issued during the year; for poetry and the drama only 5925 applications were made; history and travel maintain a fair average, but theology and economics are on the down grade.

The failure of Mr Thomas Hardy to attain really wide popularity as a writer is the subject of speculation on the part of correspondent of the "New York Times." Surely the riddle is of no overwhelming difficulty. The great heart of the people only goes out to the obvious; tne intelligence of the masses is slow to grasp the philosophies which are left implicit. Mr Hardy's work is not "difficult" in the same sense as Mr Meredith's; but its significance does not lie on the surface like the significance of the works of Dickens and Victor Hugo. He has humour like the former; he can be melodramatic like the latter; but the display of these qualities is only decorative and incidental. The main thing is the underlying conception of man as a bungling artist working in the dark, apparently a free agent, but really an unconscious part of a "sorry schema of things," continually disconcerted by the unintended consequences oi his own acts. To produce liiis effect of irony merely by dispassionate narrative is indeed an acco_pli»hroent of genius. But readers who read, as they say, "for the story," do not see it; and such readers, after all, form an immense majority.

Authorship, ±or all but a few, is an unprofitable business, is the conclusion arrived at by "The Reader." It yields a fair living, but that _ all that can be said. It brings people into the company of richer men, if cjat is any advantage. Let it be remembered that George Gissing left £1053; William Sharp, £378; and Adeline Sergeant, £294. These were modest sums, and yet they represented people highly gifted, most industrious, and very well known to the public*