“OLD NEW ZEALAND”

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26841, 4 August 1948, Page 2

“OLD NEW ZEALAND”

Literature

A POPULAR REPRINT Old New Zealand. A tale of the Good Old Times, together with a History of the War in the North of New Zealand against the Chief Heke in the year 1845, as told by an old chief of the Ngapuhi Tribe, also Maori Traditions. By a Pakeha-Maori (F. E. Maning). Whitcombe and Tombs. Ltd. It is to the garralous and witty, if frequently eccentric, Irishman who afterwards became Judge Maning that New Zealanders owe one of the most authoritative and entertaining narratives of the days before organised settlement. The untrammelled and boisterous life of New Zealand before laws were introduced appealed irresistibly to this reckless young adventurer, luring him into adopting the mode of life that had been found congenial by many another pakeha-Maori. Maning arrived —in rather undignified fashion—at Hokianga in 1833, and it was not long before a pair of dark brown eyes and a flashing smile beckoned him to linger. Thus he identified himself irrevocably with the tribe, and entered fully into their life helping them in their battles and conforming as far as possible to their customs. His experiences as a pakeha' Maori were, perhaps, not unique, but no other of the brotherhood has left such a rich_ account of his experiences. “ Old New Zealand,” and its supplementary chapters on the war in the north, is now regarded as a classic of its kind, and rightly so, for in few other books can there be found such shrewd and penetrating observation on Maori customs and character. The note of levity, and the sometimes devious —though never "tiresome—approach to the subject are the idiom of the man himself, and idiom which stamps on his narrative the ' npress of an unusual personality. This one book is all that remains of Maning’s writings—the manuscript of the rest were destroyed in circumstances which Dr Hocken merely touched on in his preface, and of a nature that history would be kind to forget—but it will remain a notable monument in our national literature. Whether it is read for pleasure or study it demands attention as an absorbing document, and the regularity with which it is issued leaves no doubt that the people of New Zealand have accorded it the distinction it well deserves. The present edition is illustrated with a series of excellent chapter headings and illustrations, of which the only criticism that can be made is that the pictures lack acknowledgment of their sources. E. A. A.