Pinching land is a very ancient New Zealand tradition, from moa hunting times on. Pinching people's sense of humour, so that they take themselves over-solemnly, is the greater crime. Long live Maori humour, and the twinkle in Lord Ballantrae's monocle!

SHORT STORIES BY NEW ZEALANDERS TWO Selected and with a preface and questions by Phoebe C. Meikle Longman Paul Ltd, $2.25 reviewed by Ani H. N. Bosch This book contains a selection of short stories by ten well-known New Zealand authors, authors who not only have a unique and distinctive style of story telling but also because of their wide and varying backgrounds, introduce a flavour which is altogether human and humane. So where does one begin in reviewing a book like this? The author has taken everything into consideration. A preface, background notes on the authors, on some of the stories and some skilfully directed questions and activities aimed at encouraging the reader to understand more fully the concepts hidden in the stories. The author directs the reader through her choice of stories to doing what all readers must do— Read for enjoyment and read to gain a deeper understanding of the people who live around us and next to us—to foster and learn something which is outside our own experience, and thereby help us to understand ourselves a lot more. One story I will always return to is Amelia Batistich's—‘A place called Sarajevo’, where to summarise the whole story in a sentence or so, I would say … ‘Ketty gave a day and a night out of her life to Mrs Zelich, and only succeeded in heightening Mrs Zelich's loneliness—because loneliness in itself breeds utter despair through which even a ray of sunshine is dissolved.’ As a reader, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I would recommend it as one which covers our multicultural life here in New Zealand.

RATANA; the man, the Church, the political movement by J. McLeod Henderson A. H. & A. W. Reed in association with the Polynesian Society, $3.95 reviewed by Roger G. Chapman Within recent years there has been a growth of interest in the Maori prophetic movements. It is as if the Maori prophet is at last becoming more widely regarded as an important figure in New Zealand history. In view of the topicality of the question the second edition of Henderson's Ratana is welcomed, the first edition having been unavailable for some time. However, the expectations which one has of a second edition of this type have not been fulfilled. It is unfortunate that Henderson's approach contains several flaws which have, for the reviewer at least, important implications for the study of Maori institutions as elements in New Zealand social history. One such implication is that since New Zealand is a multi-racial society there is both the need and the scope for greater co-operation between the anthropologist and the historian. Both are confronted with the problem of translating the meaning of either another place or another time into contemporary, universalistic terms. The anthropologist is painfully aware of the problems in confronting a culture other than his own. He realises that even after a prolonged stay in another culture he will still know less of the culture than the average child growing up within it. The European historian looking at an earlier period in his own society is almost as alien to it as an anthopologist in the field situation. However, even though the one culture appears very differently through time, the historian remaining within his own culture at least shares the heritage of that culture. One he steps into another culture for the first time he confronts the problem which the anthropologist calls ‘culture shock’. It certainly would not be valid to criticise a researcher on grounds other than those which he has explicitly taken into account