l, philo-Maori and anti-Company side, and may
be taken as a safe antidote to Jerningham Wakefield, Sir W.T. Power,
Hursthouse, and others. A comparison with Rusden, when the two are on
the same ground, shows Swainson to be the better writer all round. Of
Rusden's "History of New Zealand" no one doubts the honest intent. The
author, believing the Maori to be a noble, valiant, and persecuted
race, befriended by the missionaries and those who took missionary
advice, and robbed and cheated by almost all others, says so in three
long, vehement, sincere, but not fascinating volumes, largely composed
of extracts from public papers and speeches. Sweeping condemnation of
the Public Works policy, of Radical reforms, and recent Socialistic
experiments, complete his tale. The volumes have their use, but are
not a history of New Zealand.

Of early days in the pastoral provinces we get contemporary sketches
by Samuel Butler, L.J. Kennaway, Lady Barker, and Archdeacon Paul.
Butler's is the best done picture of the country, Kennaway's the
exactest of the settlers' every-day rough-and-tumble haps and mishaps,
and Lady Barker's the brightest. One of the volumes of General Mundy's
"Our Antipodes" gives a nice, light sketch of things as they were in
the North Island in the first years of Governor Grey. Dr. Hocken's
recent book has at once become the recognised authority on the first
years of Otago, and also has interesting chapters on the South Island
before settlement. Fitzgerald's selections from Godley's writings and
speeches is made more valuable by the excellent biographical sketch
with which it opens. Dr. Richard Garnett's admirable "Life of Gibbon
Wakefield" is the event of this year's literature from the point of
view of New Zealanders.

Of the books on the Eleven Years' War from 1860 to 1871, Sir William
Fox's easily carries away the palm for vigour of purpose and
performance. Sir William was in hot indignation when he wrote it, and
some of his warmth glows in its pages. It is a pity that he only
dealt with the years 1863-65. Generals Carey and Alexander supply the
narrative of the doings of the regulars; Lieutenant Gudgeon that of
the militia's achievements. General Carey handles the pen well enough;
not so his gallant brother-soldier. Of Gudgeon's two books I much
prefer the Reminiscences, which on the whole tell more about the war
than any other volume one can name. Sir John Gorst describes the King
Movement and his own exper