illustrated reader out of the children's own stories and vocabulary; how the children themselves are allowed to create everything they are learning. Her teaching scheme becomes her life—‘my precious work guards me everywhere’, she says, and ‘I have built my tower of song’. Being a woman, of course, she does not do the scheme only for the children. Her other inspiration is the Senior Inspector, the tall grey-trousered immaculate father-figure who turns out to be such an unworthy recipient of the scheme. When he disillusions her, she is very sad for a while; does not even go near the children—‘I have to wait until my grand rules of loving flow back into me once more’. Finally she leaves the school, back to her old love of many years ago. And she in turn can be the child whose sore leg has been trodden ‘for nutteen’. What are we to make of this unusual book? It has been very well received in England; in New Zealand, it is undoubtedly one of the best novels so far written. It is explosive, passionate, exciting all the way. There is a grand informality, a total absence of nonsense. There is nothing ponderous, heavy or abstract. Only love and ghosts are taken seriously. The language is simple, precise, sharp and evocative. Unlike most New Zealand novels, it comments not only on private life, but also on work for a community. The Maori influence can take much of the credit for that. The idea of the ‘key vocabulary’ should be some challenge to educationists, even though the author's soft irony may sometimes tease their self-esteem. Her image of the teacher could certainly be an inspiration. (Still, what would happen indeed, as one of the Inspectors says, if all teachers suddenly turned ‘irreducible’). In addition this book is the best study I have seen of the mediator—the person who has moved away from his own civilization to find comfort in another culture. The author describes such a woman in all her isolation. Do I have any reservations about the book? Only this: that the field of vision of the novel is rather narrow. The main figure stands out clearly, but where is her background? European society becomes a caricature, shrewd and amusing but not fully acceptable. The beautiful descriptions of the Maori children, of Whareparita and her dead-born twins, of old Rauhuia who so loves his grandson,—they are all brief episodes and one feels that even this very sensitive pakeha could penetrate no deeper—the task of portraying Maori people as full major characters (in the way the Spinster herself is so excellently portrayed) must remain for a Maori author. Miss Ashton Warner is on dangerous ground standing between two cultures; no wonder that at the end of the novel Miss Vorontosov rejoins her own people. ERIK SCHWIMMER

Modern Books 48a Manners Street, Wellington, C.1.

MAORI KNOWLEDGE FOR THE PRIMARY SCHOOL The Maori People (Te Iwi Maori) by F. M. Pinfold, Social Studies Activity Book, A. H. & A. W. Reed, Wellington, 1958, 3/-. There have been many school bulletins about Maori history and customs, but this is the first ‘activity book’. Activity books are a modern teaching device: they contain lots of quizzes to be filled in, space for drawings to be made or coloured by the children; what might be boring memory work is made into a pleasant game. (Here are three forest giants; please untangle: UAIRK, ATAROT, MUIR). There are many excellent illustrations and interesting diagrams; the book provides its own stories; the children have to add others of their own. In the end they have a book of their own which they will treasure, and if they are European, they will know more about Maori things than many of their elders. This book has been designed for the Social Studies syllabus. Being the work of a private publisher, teachers are not compelled to use it, but we hope that many will. Mr Pinfold, well-known to readers of this magazine was an excellent choice of author. The ‘activity book’, in the way he designed it, will be very suitable indeed for Maori children, and just as good for the European ones. It is gratifying to see the pages devoted to the pronunciation of Maori.