Our jade

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32494, 2 January 1971, Page 10

Our jade

New Zealand Jade: The Story of Greenstone. By Russell J. Beck. A. H. and A. W. Reed. 106 pp. New Zealanders have begun to realise that their jade is not just an attractive gemstone but an essential part of their country’s heritage, comments Mr Beck in his useful little book. The stone that used to be the Maori’s most valued possession is again well sought after, but in the author’s view, although the quality of the jade lapidary work is good, the original design could be better. Perhaps the European could learn a lesson from the Maori, he suggests. Copies are to be discouraged but original, more imaginative work, distinctive of New Zealand, should and could be produced. Although new undiscovered sources of jade may exist in New Zealand, finds are becoming rarer and the outlook for future reserves is not promising. Fortunately, many beautiful Maori artifacts are preserved in museums. Mr Beck finds the Maori terms for the main varieties of New Zealand jade more apt and preferable to the English versions. As there is widespread confusion over the meaning of the different terms applied to the national gemstone, the author’s classification is most helpful. All jade found in this country is nephrite or true jade as opposed to jadeite or Chinese jade. The term greenstone not only applied to nephrite but also to bowenite (tangiwai), a highly translucent stone which is actually a variety of serpentine and cannot be included as jade. Pounamu is the Maori group term for both nephrite and bowenite. Mr Beck accepts the term greenstone with reluctance, considering New Zealand jade more correct and fitting. After indicating the world location of jade, the author discusses the role of pounamu in Maori history and legends. He gives detailed descriptions of the New Zealand locations in Westland, Otago and Nelson, but warns the amateur that nephrite is the most difficult stone for the untrained eye to detect. Nowadays large boulders are usually only found in mountainous regions and have to be airlifted out by helicopter. Popular places for jade prospectors are the entrance of tailraces formerly used for hydraulic gold sluicing (where jade boulders were often placed by miners), fireplaces in old mining camps (nephrite was the only stone that would not break up under intense heat) and old tailing heaps (now being reworked by bulldozers for the occasional boulder that the miners reburied). Although little has been recorded on how the Maori worked nephrite, the general methods of manufacture have been established and the author describes the making of adzes, chisels and gouges, meres and ear and neck ornaments. With only schist, sandstone and quartz sand, articles of outstanding artistic worth were produced. The European settler was slow to appreciate jade, but Mr Beck traces the settlers’ early attempts at working jade in New Zealand and records the development to the present day modem processes of manufacture. For the technically minded there are chapters on the origin of nephrite and its physical properties. For the lapidary enthusiast there are tips and procedures which the author has found useful when working with New Zealand jade. He himself finds cutting and polishing and especially carving very satisfactory. Carving is by far the ultimate of lapidary work and nephrite is the ideal medium. Although modem technology has given the carver many new advantages, the basic principle is little different from the one used by the Chinese for hundreds of years. It is a hobby in which one not only creates but also contributes, and experience, patience and a sense of design are the keys to success.

This is an excellent study and also contains line drawings, detailed maps, black and white and coloured photographs, also a glossary, appendix and bibliography. After a surfeit of back country reminiscences, it is a welcome addition to the cultural literature of New Zealand.

Sufi parables The Dermis Probe. By Idries Shah. Jonathan Cape. 191 pp. Mries Shah’s latest collection of Sufi parables will appeal to all who are familiar with his earlier work, and to those with a taste for such characteristically Eastern modes of thought as are contained in the parables of Zen Buddhism. In spite of the publisher’s darkly dubious rumblings about “nonlinear thinking,” these stories are [touching, funny and illuminating by I turn. “The . jjermis Probe” is a book to be sampl id and savoured.