BOOKS

FIRST LESSONS IN MAORI W. L. and H. W. Williams, Whitcombe & Tombs Ltd, $1.35 and

MAORI LIFE AND CUSTOM W. J. Phillipps, A. H. & A. W. Reed, $3.75 reviewed by Beth Ranapia Musings, reminiscences and preambles have really no place in a book review; however, when one of the books is an old friend not only of mine, but of at least four generations of teachers and students, and the other is a new book written by an old friend, perhaps I may be forgiven a brief backward look. I may perhaps also be forgiven for looking at these two books from the teacher's point of view rather than from that of the general reader. To open the first of the books was to realise with a sense of shock and something of dismay that the first students to endure my early ‘grammar-translation’ methods are now grandfathers and grandmothers, whose mokopuna, if they are being taught Maori, will be taught by very different methods. Their teachers will be using the most modern techniques of language teaching and the students will have interesting and enjoyable modern textbooks to use. At the time I speak of, however, the Department of Education's reversal of its policy of active suppression of Maori was just beginning to take effect and teachers of Maori were the Cinderellas among language teachers. They had the Department's blessing, keen classes of mainly native-speaking students and an examination prescription—very little else, except their own enthusiasm and energy. If they did have a few books as teaching aids, one of them would almost certainly have been Williams' ‘First Lessons in Maori’, known familiarly as ‘Williams’ Grammar'. Many of them would have come to know it, as I did, almost by heart. Although the last ten years or so have seen a very rapidly growing interest in Maori, a great improvement in teaching techniques and an increasing number of modern textbooks, this Grammar, in spite of certain weaknesses and omissions, is still the most valuable book of its kind for those interested in the structure of the language. All teachers should own and study it for, apart from the modern works of such trained linguists as Dr Bruce Biggs, Dr Pat Hohepa and J. Prytz Johansen, no subsequent grammar book of this type has added anything of significance to this pioneering work; these modern linguists would undoubtedly each acknowledge his debt to ‘First Lessons’ as a major reference. This is the 13th edition since its first printing in 1862. The 11th edition, revised by the late W. W. Bird, brought in a few changes in terminology and some in the Scheme of the Verb, but ‘First Lessons’ has remained essentially unchanged since its first printing. In none of the revisions have the original omissions and weaknesses been entirely remedied, and the latest edition introduces some misprints not present in previous editions. The opportunity to amend the section dealing with the possessives of three singular personal pronouns has not been taken. The third or ‘neutral’. form is given only for the 2nd person, but it is erroneously stated that ‘sometimes tō and ō are used for tāu and āu. These should be tō and ō, and ‘sometimes’ is quite inadequate as an indication of the importance of the third form, or of the frequency with which it is used. The Foreword tells us that ‘the major change (in the 13th edition) is in the addition of macrons to indicate the length of vowel sounds’. It is a great pity that what should have been a valuable addition has turned out to be largely a disaster. The need for some system of marking vowel length is now generally acknowledged, and in textbooks and bulletins in Maori issued by the Department of Education, as well as in other publications, vowel length is now being consistently marked. Whatever the system of marking, it must be consistent; if it is unreliable it can be more of a hazard than a help to students. Unfortunately, the use of the macron is so inconsistent throughout this book that it completely fails in its purpose. The word apopo, for instance is given three different spellings. Perhaps the most serious