THE MAORI WARS

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 242, 9 July 1938, Page 6 (Supplement)

THE MAORI WARS

Important History By Dr. A. J. Harrop

"England and the Maori Wars,” by A. J. Harrop (London : The New Zea-land-News).

The history of the Maori wars is one of the most profoundly interesting phases of New Zealand development, and one with the most far-reaching consequences. Much has been written on that period from various aspects, but It has been left to Dr. A. J. Harrop to deal with what is probably the most important—’the influences and reactions of the British- Government in dealing with the native situation in her youngest and most distant colony.

The author draws attention to several particularly noteworthy features of the wars, In the first place the Imperial Government took advantage of the outbreak of war, itself a direct result of her neglect of the natives’ interests, to work out an experiment in policy, by throwing the onus of the war upon the colonists themselves. Second, the war was essentially a war of extermination, a much more bitter and relentless struggle than is usually realised to-day by New Zealanders, whose opinions have been warped by the false romanticism and light writing of a score of novelists and lesser historians.

Moreover, in its later stages, the war nearly did bring about the. extinction of the .Maori, for it gradually fizzled out, leaving Maori and pakeha in a state of mutual misunderstanding and mistrust, and the native despondent and resigned to what he regarded as his fate. There ensued another long period of native neglect when the Maori population ebbed rapidly, and it appeared that be would never adapt himself to a -place in the social organisation o-f the new Dominion. Ever, todav the wars have left their very definite traces in Maori-pakeha relations, land court disputes, the Ringa-Tu and Wairua-Tapu religions, the present King and Ratana movements, and a score of lesser symptoms. Only in the last two decades has the Maori position noticeably improved. Dr. Harrop confines himself strictly to his subject, but at the same time he covers a very great deal of ground, and deals with it Intensively. The book reflects infinite painstaking research. and an accurate and clear perception of the logical conclusions which previous historians liave neglected to draw from the same premises. The book is' so far the most satisfactory and complete account of the wars, from a ’political, rather than a military, standpoint. It'is well illustrated, and has for frontispiece a clever black-and-white sketch by F. E. Coventry of a Hauhau dance.