The Arts of the Maori Reviewed by K. Maitaira Photographs by Gordon Tovey, Alan Simpson and Murray Gilbert The Education Department bulletin “The Arts of the Maori” prepared by Mr Gordon Tovey, has now been in the Primary Schools for some months. Teachers have had ample time to peruse it and to arrive at some conclusion about its value, and its usefulness as a teaching medium. Some of them are loud in their praises, some are perhaps a little disappointed that the work is not sufficiently extensive, and others will have done little more than look at the photographs before relegating the book to its place collecting dust with so much other Education Department literature. It would be extremely unlikely that any work of this type could satisfy the expectations of all teachers and Maori culture enthusiasts, each with a little more or a little less knowledge than the others, and some with no knowledge whatsoever. Faced with meeting the requirements of such a diverse group, Mr Tovey had only one course to take—that of assuming that no one knew anything and preparing his work accordingly. The result is a reasonably simple treatment of the different forms of Maori arts and crafts, each one introduced with some general information and copiously illustrated with photographs. Some of the simpler crafts are complete with working instructions. There is a long list of Maori songs and hakas, a glossary of reference books, a list of Maori films to be used as teaching aids, and a map showing tribal areas.