The Bookman

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 10, 11 July 1936, Page 26

The Bookman

PLUCKED FROM LIMBO

ROMANCE OF OLD NEW ZEALAND

"THE GREENSTONE DOOR"

(By "Quivis.")

In the course of the discusslqn which took place in the' columns of "The Post" about this time last year on New Zealand literature several correspondents named their favourite work and- gave it such rank in order of merit as seemed to them appropriate. To many readers at that time some of the books mentioned were mere titles, aa they had long been out of print and copies of- them virtually unprocurable. -One of these, highly praised as a New Zealand romance by Mr. C. A. Marris, whose opinion one must respect was "T,he Greenstone Door," by William Satche.ll.. I could not place either the story or its author, for the very good reason, as I afterwards discovered, that it was: first published in 1914, the year of the outbreak of the war, and apparently, went out of print in war time, when many of us were away. ' Some happy thought, due, perhaps, to Mr. Marries staunch advocacy of the merits of the story, and, perhaps, again, to the. impetus of the New Zealand Authors' movement, prompted Messrs. Whitcombe to secure the reprinting -■•oi the book last year, and thus rescue what is a singularly fine romance from the limbo of lost literature. . As such ■ "The Greenstone Door," to the general ■public, appeal's as almost a new work, ' and as such, therefore, deserves a word ! in -commendation as to the matter and 1 manner of it.

." At first sight the title might be apt "' toMnislead. Personally, it raised ideas in my own mind of some fantastic tale : of1 imagination in which a door of ; solid greenstone .opened into a secret in the mountains of the. South, -vgiving" access to some new world or -prehistoric age,- after the~ manner- of ..Butler's "Erewhon.". Nothing could be further from the truth. The story is Tone of pakeha and Maori in early ; New, Zealand—the most heroic age— and the compact'of "Tatau Pounamu" ■'made between the' Keroand his" Maori 'friend, the closing of the "greenstone ■door,"'signifying the most sacred bond -;pf peace. So understood, no title could 'be more "appropriate to the story which .concerns the relations between the races tin the Waikato from the advent of the ; missionary to the close, of the Maori ■War of the sixties. There is no need ;now, perhaps, to go into ; details, but >■! am satisfied, after a; double reading, -that "The Greenstone Door" fully deserves all the praise given it by Mr. ;' Marris and others. The architecture of " the story, the arrangement of the structure, and the management of incident i-and character, of time and place, with V.a view to illuminating this vivid epoch lih New Zealand history and at the -same time to hold the reader's interest > in .the action, are astonishingly good. The opening chapters, describing the scene in a pa sacked by, the cannibal : chief, Te Waharoat'are'a model? of .swift movement. that grips the. reader at once and carries him away. Later in the story there are weaknesses and improbable complications of plot with love scenes rather in the. pre-war or Booth Tarkington sentimental manner, . but these are minor defects in a splendid piece of work. The style throughout is in harmony with the story and full r . of the romantic colour of the times.'-■'ln short, the b.bok answers the test'.of-literature in that- it: succeedsincr;eating the illusion..of.reality. .-' ■ ■ ' MR. JAMES COWAN'S VIEW. Where a difficulty arose was }n deciding whether that reality was the reality of convention only, or did" it correspond with the truth of history. Did It agree merely with the general conceptions of the Maori and pakeha" of; those days or would it respond to the deeper criticism of those who had ri;a(ie:a.; special study of place, period, and:people? The iquestion was.so interesting that it:was.referred -to, Mr. James Cowan' as the greatest living authority in New Zealand, on the subject which he has made his own. With his usual.kindness Mr. Cowan gave a full, reply, in. which,, in addition, h,e passes an opinion on the book which" confirms my own valuation. He writes, inter' alia: '\ "It is good stuff. I had not read it before when it was first published, but merely skimmed through it. It is.a fine piece pi work, well done, and in most parts "quite accurate, allowing for the necessities of the fiction-writer.in taking liberty with strict facts here arid there. The general attitude of the writer to the Maoris has my sympathy; he is on:sure ground in his defence, of that noble character, Wiremu 'Tadiehana, the Kingmaker (who should have" been King). "There is internal evidence that for the first part of the book Satchell consulted Judge. J. A. Wilson's 'Life of Te Waharoa,' which was based on the notes of his father, the well-known missionary. The locality of the first part was Matamata, although Satchell gives it another name, and the period 1835-38, when the mission station there was abandoned. ' Thence the scene shifts to the Walpa Valley, to Kawhia, and then to Auckland in.the fifties." Mr. Cowan finds one or two minor errors in the Maori words used and also in the account of the final fights in the Waikato . War. "The author," he says, "evidently took his material from ■ books which were not quite authentic, or.else, he did. not know the scenes or * the participants. ' For' one bit, which' is accurate, he seems to have consulted 'my 'Maoris of. New Zealand' (1910)." HIGH PRAISE FOR STORY. . Summing up 3VIr.- Cowan says: "But the; story generally is the best novel so far, describing the early contact between Maori and pakeha, by one who was, I take, it, of a later generation, ! His character sketch of Sir George Grey is, I think, excellent; Very ifihe also is the account of the 'golden., age' of the Waikato, before blights and pests came %o conquer the" country. That period of peace was about 1850 to 1863. ... I like Satchell's human philosophy; it was a joy to reiad it. It is only towards the last (p. 320 onward) that the author makes a serious blunder which rather ■polls' the book for me. He makes the Maoris keep the hero a close prisoner! in ,a room for eight months! This JS;not Maori; they would never ■ do such a thing as to gaol a man. They [either killed a prisoner outright, or made'-a slave of him; in either event he would not be kept a close prisoner indoors. Tjhe primitive Maori wouldj regard >that ;as , worse than death. In this particular Satchell ■hows:.want:of knowledge of the Maori character and history. There is no •ucli ithing iii our history. But that ig the only serious blemish in a great ■tory." ',■'■■

,"The Greenstone Door" is indeed a great': story. About its author there leems.to be little information available. Mr.' Cowan confessed that he did not have any personal knowledge of William Satchell and the most I could leiro-elsewhere sra&ihat he had. been

"rediscovered,"—'just the fact and nothing more. On the title page of my copy of "The Greenstone Door" there is this under the name of William Satchell: "Author of 'The Toll of the Bush." etc." If there is. anything in "The Toll of the Bush" or the "etc." •like "The Greenstone Door" then it should be teprinted also, without undue delay. But it may be that the author concentrated nil his powers in one supreme effort to make a masterpiece, a magnum opus, and, finding the times adverse, as thp,y were inevitably, when the World War filled the sky, wrote no more. If so, it was a tragedy not unique in New Zealand and other literature." There are many fine stories out of print and worth revival and the success of the resurrection of "The Greenstone Door" should be an example to carry on with the good work. Our modern authors can count on a "better spin." One learns with pleasure that the authors of 'The Little Country" and "Children of the Poor" are moving on to further triumphs, perhaps, but there will I always be a place in New Zealand literature for "The Greenstone Door "