“PLUME OF THE ARAWAS”

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 17 January 1939, Page 3

“PLUME OF THE ARAWAS”

Judge F. O. V. Acheson’s “Plume of the Arawas" was warmly commended when it was first published in 1930. For some time it has been out of print. Messrs A. H. and A. W. Reed, however, who have done so much to encourage New Zealand authorship and publishing, are to be congratulated on having produced a new and cheap edition of this notable work. It tells of the Maori and his history and predicts for him a noble destiny. The author, in a foreword expresses the conviction “that the Maori will add an element of greatness Ito the national life of New Zealand, and that from men and women of ! Maori blood will spring up artists and poets and orators and writers and spiritual leaders of great renown.” Of the oratorial powers of the Maori there is ample proof. The scene of this story is laid principally in the picturesque region around Taupo Lake and Tongariro mountain, in the heart of the North Island, a region still inhabited by the Ngati-Tuwharetoa tribe, whose ancestor, the “Plume of the Arawas,” is the hero. Prominence is given to the remarkable “Urukehu,” or fair-haired strain in the Maori race, “an ancient and almost pure Caucasian strain which is known to have come over in the ‘fleet’ of canoes about A.D. 1350 and with earlier Polynesian migrations as well, but the exact origin of which is shrouded in mystery still.” The author offers his own opinion as to the far-back origin of the “Urukehus.” Mystery also surrounds the exercise by Maori chiefs of high tohunga rank of strange powers of mind such as the dreaded “makutu.” While this is a work of absorbing fiction, the author explains that he has striven for accuracy of detail and historical record. No student of Maori history and lore should be without this book, which will prove of great interest even to the casual reader.