The Art of Maori Carving

Te Ao Hou, March 1962, Page 52

The Art of Maori Carving by Sidney M. Mead. A. H. & A. W. Reed 16/- Mr Mead, who is well-known as a leader in Maori education and as a writer, will need no introduction to readers of Te Ao Hou. He sets out in this book to do two things: to discuss the history and significance of Maori carving, and to provide a manual for people who are beginning to learn carving. The book is very well produced, and has many illustrations. It is most reasonably priced, and many people, especially perhaps teachers who are interested in Maori crafts, will find it most valuable. —M.O. Dr. J. C. Beaglehole's standard work “The Discovery of New Zealand” has been republished recently by the Oxford University Press (21/-). The text has been very much revised, to include the results of research of the last twenty years, especially Dr Beaglehole's own research on James Cook, to whom most of the book is devoted. Dr Beaglehole explains, in a new preface, that he has not changed his chapter on ‘The Polynesians’ to fit in with the theories of Mr Andrew Sharp. Although he admits Mr Sharp ‘must be reckoned with’, he reminds us that the discussion of Maori origins ‘is a battlefield littered with gashed theories and not a few dead bodies of speculation’. Early New Zealand History in Pictures, by Charles McKenzie, A. H. & A. W. Reed, 1961, retells some of the facts in the form of a comic strip. This will be very useful to those who find it easier to assimilate facts by means of comic strips than in any other way. Undoubtedly this book, if placed in school libraries, would be eagerly devoured. One looks forward hopefully to a similar treatment of fractions and decimals. Two useful New Zealand books, especially for younger readers, are ‘Colourful New Zealand’, Jarrold & Son, 4/6, and ‘Camera Studies of the Small World’, by A. T. Bandsma and R. T. Brandt, Whitcombe & Tombs, 1961, 13/6. The first of these two books is mainly for overseas tourists; its value in this country is that it contains over thirty extremely well-printed colour photographs of New Zealand towns and countryside. It is hard to get good colour photographs of that kind; they will be useful for Social Studies in schools. ‘The Small World’ is a collection of very fine photographs of New Zealand insects, each accompanied by a short note about the insect concerned. The notes are interesting and will be of some use in nature study; unfortunately no attempt has been made to give Maori names for the insects. The main value of this book too lies in the pictures which are in some cases quite unique. E.G.S.