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Te Ao Hou, September 1967, Page 61

impossible to get far in untangling and tracing the various groups at different times. There is another trouble so far as Court minutes are concerned; the habit of using a new hapu name as a convenient method of grouping rights to land under one ancestor, though the hapu as such never existed as any kind of recognised or formed community. The question of early settlements around the Rotorua-Bay of Plenty area and of contact with pre-Fleet people or, at any rate, non-Arawas, to which Mr Stafford devotes an appendix is a particularly interesting one. There is little, if any, real evidence on the subject. Though Mr Stafford hopes eventually for some results from carbon dating, he is inclined to be dubious about the presence of other people and points out that there is no clear story of pre-Arawa occupation and that references to stranger tribes do not arise until many generations after the landing of the canoe. I must admit that the various stories of the original settlement of the Lakes district by different Arawa groups do tend to leave a strong impression that there were people about who were not descended from the Arawa crew. I have wondered if some earlier groups of settlers (possibly connected or related to Te Arawa) did not become identified after the Arawa arrival with individual Arawa men in some way (e.g. Marupunganui and Tuarotorua). All the old stories so well known from Marsh's contributions to Grey are here. Tamatekapua's cunning exploits, Hatupatu, Hinemoa and Tutanekai are here where they belong, in their Arawa context. Later, of course, we have the story of Hongi's invasion, the Te Tumu fight, Kaokaoroa and the stirring story of Mair's devoted band. We meet again Tapsell, the first settled trader with the Arawa, the missionaries Spencer and Chapman and many others of the early days of this colony, but most of this later material is to be found published elsewhere and this book is likely to be more valued for its description of the pre-settlement period. One more mild criticism. Since Mr Stafford thought it worthwhile to insert as an appendix to the book Chief Judge Jones' report on partitions regarding Rotorua Township (Pukeroa Oruawhata), he could well have added the later report of the Commission headed by Sir Michael Myers (published as Parliamentary Paper G7 of 1948) on the same subject, and also mentioned the settlement by the Government of the claims of the Maoris concerned. This is a good and worthwhile book which must be a standard item in any New Zealand historical library. We can only be grateful to Mr Stafford for his work and for his decision to publish, a decision which so many other devoted collectors have postponed until too late. The book is creditably produced and there is a good index and bibliography and a few interesting illustrations. Proof reading has apparently been of a high standard and your reviewer has noticed very few misprints or misspellings.