expresses the suspicion that his rival had smeared himself with heat-resisting cream. The journals give a penetrating picture of Maori life in the middle of the nineteenth century. It is remarkable however, how little it includes of the very full researches Taylor made of Maori culture. One would expect a wealth of mythical and historical material, but Rev. Taylor seems to have been at pains to keep for his diary only a record of his life as a clergyman; the Maori chants belong to quite another world which is not allowed entry. In his diary, one sees him fighting a kindly but uncompromising struggle against idolatry, faith healing and superstition. He must have had another notebook, in which he made a careful study of the Maori religion to which his deepest beliefs were opposed, but which yet he could not help respecting and in some respects even admiring. In this admiration lay, of course, a great danger for those missionaries who were sensitive to the greatness of other cultures. This was the cause of Kendall's troubles; as he wrote himself in a famous letter: “All their (the Maoris) notions are metaphysical and I have been so poisoned with the apparent sublimity of their ideas that I have been almost completely turned from a Christian to a heathen.” Rev. Taylor, of course, had no such experience, but in the end his admiration for the Maoris’ spiritual qualities led him to a theory that the Maoris are a lost tribe of Israel and in this way he could explain to his own satisfaction why he was so attracted to their ‘superstitious' religion. He did not work out this theory however until long after he had translated the chants. A few isolated passages in his journals show that his understanding of Maori beliefs was profound and well ahead of his times. One passage summarises so well the essential problem in grafting nineteenth century Christianity to the Maori back-ground, that it is worth quoting here:— “We called at Atene and at Koriniti, where food was cooked and I went with the carpenter to survey their beautiful church. We then left and reached Hikurangi to sleep in the evening. The natives made a fire in the middle of the marae around which they all sat with me. They had a long account to give of their back-slidings and of several who had carried their children to the Tohunga Maori when ill to be karakied over. It is grievous to see what childish ideas are still entertained by many. They have a too general fancy that our native hospital kills instead of cures and that the Lord also does the same; that their native incantations are more potent than our prayers, and, I fear, many do not feel sensible of the sin they are guilty of or the true nature of prayer which they do not view so much in the light of supplication to God as an incantation to constrain him to yield to their wishes. Thus one man tried to justify what he had done and said that the atua Maori came and whistled over the roof of his house and told him to be strong in prayer and his child would be healed and when the child did not recover, the atua came again and bid him be still stronger in prayer and then his prayers were like a line which drew up the life of his child out of Hades and he recovered. But, said he, I only used the prayers of our church. It appears as though the natives thought that the great test of the efficacy of religion is healing the sick. Did the Jews think so and was it on that account Christ went about curing men of their temporal ailments?” (October 25, 1853.) Rev Taylor's most outstanding pupil was Hoani Wiremu Hipango, the Whanganui chief, who accompanied Rev Taylor on his voyage to England in 1855 and met Queen Victoria. He studied for the ministry, but worked so hard by dim candlelight that his eyesight was affected and he had to give up. When Putiki was attacked in 1865 he took command of the defence. He was ambushed by four men, but they were captured in time. Hoani fed them, then sent them away unhurt, as his religion bade him forgive his enemies. The next night ten men lay in ambush for him; when they were also trapped he did the same as before, saying: “I will not be the first to shed blood.” In the hour of victory a ball struck Hoani in the chest and he was buried with military honours. His journals do not show signs of any interest in poetry. He probably did not consider his translations of the chants poetry at all. It is perhaps as well, for if Rev. Taylor had consciously tried to write verse, he might have used all the poetic conventions of his time and the bare precision of his renderings might have been lost. The one quoted here could well be a model to modern translators who try their hand at the ancient songs of the Maori. For instance, Taylor is the only translator to my knowledge to render Kore by ‘The Nothing’. Yet this is far superior to the conventional ‘Void’ for it is closer to the Maori feeling of the word. To bring out the world of feeling in a Maori chant in English words is a very subtle task. It is an important task for it would bring Maori and pakeha together on a fundamental level.