shown to be a highly complex and sophisticated art form. As such it deserves the attention of all who are interested in art and material culture. The next chapter classifies all known patterns on the basis of dominant motifs and is an extension of Buck's earlier classification, which used internal cultural information as the basic criteria. The result is a much more meaningful interpretation of taniko motifs. Throughout, the book is well illustrated with photographs and diagrams that are essential to a study of this kind. A very large tribute must be paid to the excellence of both, in terms of clarity and attention to detail. Finally the result of this book is a picture of taniko, not only as a vital and dynamic art form, but as a medium for expressing symbolically the ideas and beliefs of the people. Dr Mead is to be congratulated for his lucid and scholarly discussion, and for his contribution to that school of thought which maintains that, irrespective of the sundry specifics of its relations, art is always an integral part of culture—never a thing apart.

THE SHADOW OF THE LAND—a study of British policy and racial conflict in New Zealand, 1832–1852 by Ian Wards Government Printer, $6.00 reviewed by Mrs Maxine Tamahori, M.A The author first set out to write a history of the army in New Zealand, but because the initiation of military enterprise in this country cannot be divorced from its early history, the book was greatly broadened in concept. The result has been a vivid record of the political and social times surrounding the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi. Underlying the whole is Maori mistrust of European intentions, influenced and intensified by their own overriding desires to acquire European materials and advantages, for which the only acceptable exchange was their land. As the sub-heading of the book indicates, it is ‘a study of British policy and racial conflict in New Zealand, 1832–1852’. Policy and conflict activated each other. Conflict areas are located in North Auckland, Wellington, Wanganui and briefly, though significantly, in Nelson. It is associated almost wholly with the land. First chapters cover the early negotiations and developments in the acquisition of the new colony and by page 40, we are brought into Treaty of Waitangi times and the dark clouds of impending conflict in the North. The author gives new significance to this treaty, conceived in the interests of imperial policy, yet so phrased as to present a charter of ideal co-existence between two peoples at widely separated points in the time-scale of civilization. The chameleon nature of the words is not readily apparent, certainly Maori unsophistication was no match for it at the time, and the author goes to some length to clarify a situation which he claims has been falsely represented to five generations of Maori people. Disillusionment came quickly to some. Nopera Panakareao, a christianised Kaitaia chief of great influence, said at the signing of the Treaty, ‘The shadow of the land goes to Queen Victoria, but the substance remains to us’. Less than a year later he was to say, ‘The substance of the land goes to the Europeans, the shadow only will be our portion’. By the time that Governor Grey had arrived, so much blurring of Treaty ink had occurred that he found nothing incompatible with it in his instructions ‘to foster the education of the Maori and to consider his feelings and prejudices, but only when these were not inconsistent with the peace and welfare of colonists of European descent … to require implicit subjection to the law, and if necessary to enforce that submission by the use of all powers, civil and military at his command’. Grey was not slow to take advantage of the extreme in his instructions, and in spite of the warnings of officials and missionaries, that the continued violation of Maori rights might result in a united Maori front instead of the isolated resistance of a few chiefs, he virtually gave the colonists a free hand in the acquisition of Maori land. Less than five years after the signing of the Treaty, the Maori had become a second-class citizen in his own land and there was rebellion from Wairau to Kororareka, through the Wellington district and in Wanganui. Taranaki, Waikato and Tauranga were in a state of unrest. As a promise of peaceful co-