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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 10, Issue 7 (October 1, 1935)

Books of a Lifetime

Books of a Lifetime.

Two other great and valuable works of history from Mr. Smith's never-idle pen are “The History and Traditions of the West Coast,” embodying a Maori history of Taranaki from the ancient times, and “Maori Wars of the Nineteenth Century.” Copious in detail, reliable in dates and places, written out of the fulness of his knowledge obtained from both Maori and pioneer pakeha sources, they are the two most useful histories to-day on their special subjects. But for Mr. Smith's intimate knowledge of the Maori and the mutual confidence and sympathy of their relations with each other, much of what is now on record would have been lost for ever, for the old generation has passed, and the young Maori of the North and the West Coast must go chiefly to Percy Smith's books for knowledge of his tribal past.

Percy Smith's work towers above that of all his brother Maori historians. His extraordinarily close and diligent study of the ancient traditions and genealogies and related lore laid a solid foundation for the scientific younger generation of recorders who have taken the Pacific as their field of exploration and enquiry.