HIS WORK SURVIVED A CENTURY It is now exactly a century ago that Rev. Richard Taylor, Church of England missionary in Wanganui, published his scholarly book on the Maori people called Te Ika A Maui. This was the first book in which many of the best-known Maori traditions and myths were published. The most remarkable feature in the book, for modern readers, is the translation of some old Maori chants, particularly those describing the creation. It is no exaggeration to say that very rarely if ever have the great difficulties of rendering ancient Maori chants in good English verse been so successfully handled. It is a great pity that the translations are so few in number, but it is not surprising, because the style of translation of Rev. Taylor, although very remarkable to an car attuned to modern English verse, was very different indeed from the style fashionable during the reign of Queen Victoria, Rev. Taylor's contemporaries probably found his versions too bare, not sufficiently poetic, and they probably missed the wonderful accuracy with which the translations bring out the world of feeling surrounding the Maori words. The most important of the chants, has been reprinted in this issue of Te Ao Hou. An adequate study of Rev. Taylor's life and work has never been made and although this cannot be done in the space available in Te Ao Hou, a few facts have been brought together here to explain how this exceptional translation came to be written. A little book The Impact of Christianity on the Maori People, by A. W. Reed, published earlier this year, described in an interesting way the attitudes of the missionaries to the traditional religion. The author quotes an instruction sent by Samuel Marsden to his laity: ‘Rather propose and enforce with meekness the glorious truths of the gospel than dispute with their superstitions and absurd opinions.’ To avoid dispute was wise counsel but many people now think that the rejection of the traditional Maori world of thought as ‘absurd opinions’ was perhaps regrettable. As Mr Reed points out, in Europe many early pagan beliefs were not so rejected and have become part of the Christian inheritance. Rev. Taylor (1805–73) was a sensitive cultured man with an almost artistic temperament. Although his capacity for work was amazing, he was not robust. Minister at Wanganui from 1843, he spent the last thirteen years of his life largely in retirement, concentrating on his scientific studies.

Wide Interests He was somewhat of an artist; many of his sketches have survived in Te Ika A Maui and in his journals. It was also he who engrossed the text of the original Treaty of Waitangi on parchment. The Rev Richard Taylor Many were his contributions to geology and botany and he took an important part in bringing the first moa bones to the attention of scientists. ‘He was interested in everything he saw, animals, plants, earthquakes and especially people. He wrote many volumes of journals and even now they make most interesting reading. Writing in probably the most troubled time in Maori history he witnessed many dramatic, painful and also beautiful incidents. In describing these he is always brief, and yet says exactly what happened and what everybody felt; he is aware of what goes on inside people, and he can write it down. A mark against him is his extreme hatred of a certain other denomination. In this he was a man of his times; in these otherwise delightful journals there is a passage where he and the rival man of God actually challenged each other to a test of fire. He whom the fire did not burn belonged to the true religion. With the utmost seriousness Rev. Taylor relates how the contest did not take place because neither contestant was prepared to submit himself to the test first. Equally seriously, he