"RAHWEDIA."

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18548, 25 November 1925, Page 11

"RAHWEDIA."

A TRUE MAORI ROMANCE. (fbom our owh cobbbspondent.) LONDON) October 15. ' '' A true romance of the South Seas,'' is the description given to a recentlypublished book, entitled "Rahwedia". (Messrs D. Appleton and Co., 7s 6d). "Rahwedia" is the name of a Maori maiden, whom the author, Mr C. Harold Smith, met and became friends with for a few months in the summer of 1875-6. To-day the author still "wears* a,-Maori talisman, the gift of Rahwedia. The mysterious changing hue of this pendant, he says—the slowly-deepening green at the" base of the stone—foreshadowed the passing years, and warned him that if the tale'was to be told of her who gave it him, there was no time to lose.

It was a boy of sixteen who 'took passage by the White Eagle, a clipper ship of the New Zealand Shipping Company, bound for Auckland, and listed to leave London on June sth, 1875. Without delay, his uncle in Auckland finds him a place in the timber mills of Hikutaia, near the Thames. Presently he is lost in the bush. He wanders on for two days, and comes to a temporary Maori settlement. Here he meets the girl Rahwedia, the grand- 1 child of an Englishman. . No attempt is made to send the boy back to Hikutaia, and so he settles down as a young Pakeha Maori, learning Hie language from the beautiful Rahwedia, and living the daily life of the youth of the settlement. Hau Hau Beunion. In due course all tho inhabitants of the pa go down the river to take part iu the festivities in connexion with the reunion of the Han Haus and the tribes which had been friendly to the English. Tliis, as is well-known, was an historic occasion, and was attended by Sir Donald Mac Lean. It is interesting to read what ah independent spectator has to sav of it. It was on this occasion that it was agreed to construct the famous Mata-Atua, which was shown at Wembley last year, and is. now erected at tho Duncdin Exhibition.

This, briefly, is the simple framework of the story, but there is a delicate love theme running through it. Bahwedia, a simple child of Nature, with just that touch of English blood in her which calls forth a preference for the English boy, is an arresting character. The author has made no effort to construct a romance. He has obviously told his experiences just as they happened, and in this is the value of the book. In the end the author was involved in an unpleasant incident that occurred at the great Maori feast near Hikutaia. There is a pathetic note at the end of the talc, and the boy, for fear of his life, seeks refuge in flight. But he bears- away with him the mystic talisman, the last gift of Kahwedia. Very simply told and with little action, "the story, nevertheless, has a tenderness and a delicacy which leave a wistful impression on the mind of the reader. The volume is well illustrated with modern New Zealand pictures.