THE MAORI FISHER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20454, 4 January 1930, Page 8 (Supplement)

THE MAORI FISHER.

Here are two little books that every New Zealander wishing to be a " compleat angler " after Izaak Walton's own heart will want to put into his satchel. Tho first, and less slender, is Elsdon Best's " Fishing Methods and Devices of the Maori," another of the bulletins — No. 12, of tho Dominion Museum seriesfo be precise—with which he is enriching our store of knowledge of Maori thought, and art, and coming, like the rest, from tho Government printing office, "by authority." Never was ' that institutional phrase better justified. Here, in a couple of hundred packed pages, the title has exposition, Mr. Best's netting through many years of skilful research, having resulted in a haul that seems to leave nothing out. Even whales, ordinarily beyond the pale of piscatologv, have been captured. Little need be added by way of commendation. Mr. Best's wine is always so good that it needs no bush. As elsewhere, hero ho has collated in clear and interesting fashion the lore of the ancient craft as the Maori practised it. Legend and natural history and explanation of moot points combine in a masterpiece of patient study, and tho mind of the. Maori fisherman is interestingly rovealed. Those who do rod-work in ethnology will be numbered among its thankful users.

A minnow beside it, and yet worth landing by every seeker for tho selfsame sort of prize, is Tamati R. Poata's " Tho Maori ns a Fisherman and his Methods," from tho To A roll a News Press. It suffers by comparison of size and format, yet the flavour is tho samo. It, too, has a place for the whale, but its treatment of tho subject, after rovealing somo hidden things tho Maori fisherman once kept jealously to himself, gives fish by fish, in tho main, from the lively kahawai to tho frost fish thrown up on tho beach. A useful contribution is thus made to tho alluring theme, its hunter's handfuls loss by far than Mr. Best's heaps, but still of value. With these two, f.shermen of both races may spend unfavourable days well. Even as sources of fish stories, they will be productive. To tho student of tho Maori mind they aro indispensable.