THE GREENSTONE DOOR.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 99, 29 April 1933, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE GREENSTONE DOOR.

(By Harold Cole 'Tanna Wata," Kaituke; age 13.)

One of the most interesting books I liave read is "The Greenstone Door," by William Satchell, which was published in 1914, and in which the author shows great knowledge and deep understanding of the Maori race. This book is* considered by some the best ever written on early New Zealand. The took holds the reader's interest from the first, opening as it does with the finding by, Missioner Wake and his friend Purcell, of Cedric Tregarthen, small son of a pakeha Maori, who had wandered from his home and so had escaped the sacking and burning of the Te Kuma pa by Te Waharoa, who had reverted to cannibalism. It tells of the heroic efforts made by the missioner to turn the natives from cannibalism and to save the life of Cedric, who becomes the foster child of Mr. Purcell. Many and interesting are the sidelights on life in a Waikato trading station, and we read with pleasure different ways and creeds pi the Maori race. At the age of 15 Cedric arrives in Auckland after an interesting voyage, and having to ride from Man'ukau to Auckland, he tells in an amusing way of his first ride on a horse, which ended in humiliation for hjm, and the meetingat the most inopportune mordent of Helenora Wylde, a 12-year-old guest of Sir George Grey and also the Governor himself. Later Cedric becomes the secretary of Sir George Grey, and it is interesting to read of our former Governor's picture of future Auckland. After the departure of Sir George Grey to England, Cedric returns to visit the home of his foster father, and linds that the latter has been charged with assisting the natives and sentenced to death. Cedric undertakes a wild night ride to General Cameron for a reprieve and returns just as the shots of the tiring party ring out. At the beginning of the Maori wars he was taken prisoner. The book ends as it started, full of interest.