‘New Zealand in Colour’, Vols. I & II A. H. & A. W. Reed, each vol. 25s. These big twin volumes contain well-printed colour photographs of New Zealand scenery, mostly beaches and lakes. Apart from a few distant views of holiday-makers, and one photo of some birds, almost the only sign of life they show is some of the Waihirere Maori Club, in Maori costume needless to say, performing in front of Poho o Rawiri in Gisborne. ‘New Zealand Scenery’ might have been a more accurate title; but certainly the photographs are very handsome.

Tales of Tamati by Ian MacKay Oswald Sealy Ltd., 18s. These are home-spun, whimsical tales, of a rather old-fashioned kind; many readers will find them attractive, though other readers may get rather irritated at them. They are ‘Maori’ stories, but Mr MacKay tells us that he has intermingled a considerable amount of fiction of his own invention. He also says that the tales are presented in a manner similar to that adopted by a Maori story-teller. This is a matter which readers will have to judge for themselves; of course, not all Maori story-tellers adopt the same manner.

The Dead Men of Eden by V. Merle Grayland Whitcombe & Tombs 12/6 The Eden in this detective novel is a new suburb being built on the outskirts of Auckland. There are quite a few dead men strewn around before the mysterious strangler is discovered, and the amateur sleuth who works it all out is a Maori, Hoani Mata. Hoani isn't really keen on corpses, and likes an easy-going, enjoyable life better than an adventurous one. But no sooner does he come to Eden to help his brother Bob build a new house, than he finds sinister mysteries all around them. After a while he starts to put two and two together … ‘The Dead Men of Eden’ is unpretentiously written, but the background characters who live in this new suburb—young married couples trying to get a start, do-it-yourself experts, outdoor types, eccentrics and so on—are attractively presented and reasonably convincing; the same goes for Hoani and his brother. The book has humour as well as suspense, and it is interesting to read a detective story with a New Zealand setting. Altogether this is pleasant, easy reading. —M.O.

From East Cape to Cape Egmont by A. H. Reed A. H. & A. W. Reed, 21s. At 85 years of age A. H. Reed undertook a walk from New Zealand's extreme north to extreme south, writing a book about his travels called ‘From North Cape to Bluff’. Now he has made another expedition—from Te Araroa to Egmont, across the widest part of New Zealand. ‘From East Cape to Cape Egmont’ is an attractive account of some of the people, many of them Maori, whom he met on this long trek. When Bishop Panapa re-dedicated the Poho o Kahungunu meeting house at Porangahau recently, he had a few sharp comments to make about education. If he were Prime Minister of New Zealand, he told the large gathering, he would make a law against Maori mothers who take their sons out of school at the age of 15 and place them with shearing gangs. Any mother who did so, he said, ‘should be shot’. The Maori race was breeding like rabbits, but there was nothing wrong with that. ‘The thing is that we are a growing nation and combined with our European brothers what we need is education—first, second and last.’