NEW PUBLICATIONS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXX, Issue 62, 10 September 1910, Page 13

NEW PUBLICATIONS.

"Maori Wars of the Nineteenth Century." By L. Percy Smith, F.B.G.S. Second and enlarged edition. Wellington and Chrißtchurch : Whitcombe and Tombs. The author of this volume takes a leading place in the small band of historians of New Zealand. For the work to be of any value it must cover a wider field than the merely picturesque and anecdotic annuals which appeal to tne casual reader. To study the tastes of this class is never conducive to accuracy, and a work of permanent value can not be produced without exceptional knowledge in various fields, and equally exceptional diligent and systematic research. Few possess as does Mr. Percy Smith extensive knowledge of our island geography and topography, and the New Zealand and collateral languages, genealogies, poems, and traditions. Few have grouped an* compared these with such care; and, possibly, fewest of all have so persistently followed up and tabulated the vast and undigested masses of fragmentary and often conflicting chronological data. For nearly twenty years he has conducted the quarterly journal of the Polynesian Society, of which he was one of the founders, and his many historic memoirs of the New Zealand tribes, their chief heroes, and their exploits, have formed the basis of several separate works, which bid fair to become standard authorities. Books of this kind, indispensable to the student and full of interest to tho intelligent reader, are not of the class that best commend themselves for brief quotation. Every page shows the author's conscientious care in weighing authorities and balancing probabilities. With such methods the "slapdash" reader, who loves the obvious — conclusions ready to adopt and espouse — has little patience. Mr. Smith has already dealt extensively with the wars and "antiquities" of the Maori in the dim regions of tradition; he has now sought to throw rays of light on the days preceding the pakeha visitation, and on the little less obscure intervening days preceding colonisation, when those devoted workers and methodical annalists, the pioneer missionaries, could, for instance, describe the extensive region south of Mercury Bay only by a comprehensive application of tho title "The East Cape." This particular volume is called, in a sub-heading, "The Struggle of the Northern against the Southern Maori Tribes prior to the Colonisation of New Zealand in 1840," and it covers tho eventful epoch of the introduction of fire-arms. The pivotal point of recent Maori tradition is 1809, the year of tht> capture of the Boyd, and it is interesting to note how the dates (sometimes conjectural) continue from 1808 forwards, and appear with increasing rapidity. We know of no book better fitted to give an idea, of Maori warerafL and ferocity, and as an example of his arts we can adduce no better instance than his account (p. 76) of "that very beautiful object," the old-time war-canoe — one specimen of which, a hundred and forty feet in length, he describes in detail. The printers have produced the volume in attractive style, and the well-selected illustrations form & valuable feature. "A Question of Money." By C. U. Testwell. Auckland, .N.Z. ' The author, in pamphlet form, hps given us a treatise on the currency question that will 1 not fail to impress the" reader ivitli the quantity of solid thought and intimate reading that has been bestowed upon it — a subject that has tried the ingenuity, perplexed and ensnared the statesmen and financiers for •centuries past. The world at large is very loth to accept and value at sight the idealist in finance, and has little inclination to«be captivated with "cure alls," notwithstanding their plausible appearances. "A Question of Money" Sallies forth first to demonstrate the economic weakness of gold as a standard, inasmuch as only «a small portion of the vrorld'B production can be represented by that mqdium of exchange ; and next to show the remedy. The author states that, roughly, in New Zealand, we have value of land plus | other forms of wealth— viz., the total production, some £350,000,000, and yet j as a medium of exchange there is only £25,000,000 (barely one-twelfth), henco he argues tightness of money, depression, all owing to the appreciation of gold and consequent depreciation of the world's production. C. V. Testwell advocates an universal paper currency. An international council of finance would have to be established, and all nations adopt the currency. A country's amount of paper would he adjusted to its relative production. For example, we presume N&w Zealand would be allowed, say, £350)000,000, which would be an equilibrium in production and medium of exchange. The world's wealth would equally bo bought by its equivalent in paper. Without offering any criticism of this remarkable financial proposition, we suggest that the disarmament of the nations is a thing of next week, and universal free trade of a month, compared with tho measure of time that must elapse before the advent of a universal papef currency.