THE Hauraki Plains Gazette With which is Incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, FRIDAY. “Public Service.” WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 1943 DEATH OF JAMES COWAN.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 52, Issue 32314, 15 September 1943, Page 4

THE Hauraki Plains Gazette With which is Incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, FRIDAY. “Public Service.” WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 1943 DEATH OF JAMES COWAN.

The death of Mr James Cowan has deprived the Dominion of one of its outstanding, authorities on the Maori race. During a long life he had been an 'insatiable collector of Maori lore, and his numerous notebooks must have hundreds, if not thousands, of incidents relating to place names in the Dominion. At one time he collected scores of little songs about Mokoia Island and other historic spots in the Rotorua district and the prospect of obtaining reliable data in this respect was sufficient to set him off on the trail. Those notebooks should be of great historic value to all interested in Maori lore, customs and history. He used to tell how his father, a settler on what is still called “the old frontier,” south of Te Awamutu; had formed a friendship with a tohunga who lived on the southern side of the Puniu River, then the white man’s boundary. In order that the lad might learn the Maori language thoroughly James Cowan was sent for a time to live with the aged Maori, and he became a fluent Maori linguist. His other lasting interest was in the South Seas and xyhen he lived in Auckland he spent many hours in the workroom of a sailmaker there because the skippers of tho schooners and other craft that traded to the islands made that their headquarters. In that way he acquired a great knowledge of the Pacific and turned it to good account. His death robs New Zealand journalism of a most interesting figure, and in years to come students and others will have cause to be grateful for his painstaking work ill saving from loss much of interest and value in connection with Maori life in this country.