NEW BOOKS IN BRIEF Last year was a vintage year for books on the Maori. Some of these books (John Grace's Tuwharetoa and Leo Fowler's novel on Te Kooti) will be discussed at length in our next issue. A small work by James Cowan, written in the early thirties, was published by A. H. and A. W. Reed under the title of The Caltex Book of Maori Lore (price, 4/6). Originally written for the Texas Company, a predecessor of Caltex, it had remained unprinted until now. A brief popular survey of the Maori ancient and modern, attractively illustrated by Dennis Turner, it should prove useful for anyone in search in an introduction. Mr Bruce Palmer, until recently co-editor of the Polynesian Journal, has edited the text with the aim of bringing the facts up to date and incorporating the latest scientific discoveries. The work shows again the late James Cowan's breadth of knowledge of the Maori. On such matters as Maori warfare he was a considerable expert; the little chapter on ‘The Maori in War’ is excellent. On other topics however his knowledge was unsystematic; his method of filling the gaps was to tell an anecdote, which he could do extremely well, and leaving the subject otherwise untreated. Such is his approach to the tangi in this book. He does not therefore produce an entirely adequate summary of the culture as a whole. Mr Palmer attempted an almost impossible task in his revision. As the text stands now, it is often hard to know whether any view is Cowan's own or the editor's. For instance, p. 21: “The older spirit is now partially revived, and legislation during the last five decades has been based largely on the tribal system which encouraged persistence in industrial effort.” It would be unfair to take the late Mr Cowan to task for this strange statement, because when he wrote it it had elements of truth; nor could we complain to Mr Palmer, for he did nothing except change the word ‘two’ or ‘three’ to ‘five’. Similarly we wonder whose is the responsibility for saying that there are large wheat cultivations at Ratana Pa; at the time that Mr Cowan wrote about them, they undoubtedly existed. I think it would have been better to leave the text unchanged and confine editing to footnotes and possibly a concluding chapter. Another welcome addition to the Maori bookshelf is the reprint of John Gorst's The Maori King by Paul's Book Arcade (price 25/-), edited by Dr Keith Sinclair. Like any historical work written so long ago (1864), Gorst is outdated here and there, especially in his persistent theme that the Maoris were to blame for the fight over the ‘Waitara Purchase’. Historians today are agreed that Wiremu Kingi was within his rights in opposing the sale of this land, but Gorst accepted the views of the colonists on this matter. Such blemishes are greatly outweighed by Gorst's deep insight into the King movement and his keen understanding of the King Maker and other Waikato personalities who were good friends of his. He saw the true motives of the Maori people, enumerating three main causes of the Maori wars. These include the conflict over land and the lack of Maori representation in Parliament, but as most important cause Gorst mentions racial prejudice, the slighting of the Maori people by many of the European settlers of that time. On this he writes a brilliant passage. It is very pleasing indeed that this important New Zealand classic is again available. Dr Sinclair's editing is most helpful. Michael Turnbull's The New Zealand Bubble (Price Milburn & Co., 5/-) covers ground similar to John Miller's Early Victorian New Zealand. It discusses the work of E. G. Wakefield and the New Zealand Company in the 1840's. His judgment on the Company is very similar to Miller's: he thinks it was an astute commercial enterprise, conducted without any particular regard for the European settlers or the Maori landowners. The greater part of his book is devoted to the European aspect; on Maori land purchases little new material is offered. Like Miller, Turnbull places the blame for the Wairau massacre on the company's officials and the Nelson settlers themselves. Two other important recent reprints are: The Exploration of New Zealand by W. G. McClymont and New Zealand Literature by E. H. McCormick, both from the Oxford University Press. The former of these books (price 21/-) describes how New Zealand was explored by European missionaries, sealers and traders in the early part of last century. Concentrating less on the navigators than on the travellers inland, he describes the journeys of early missionaries, traders and scientists, thus providing many new clues for the student of Maori-pakeha contacts. The explorer is a rather special person who is not content to stay in settled areas, but always seeks unknown and hazardous places, partly impelled by a practical pursuit like trading, preaching or botanizing, but partly also by the pure love of