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with the eternal themes of life and love and death. But place them alongside men of their measure in other lands or ages, and they show not badly in the comparison. One or two lilts well sung, some verses in lighter vein daintily hit off, a lullaby or two with a tenderness of motherhood in the rocking of them—these are not altogether unworthy of a little additional publicity.

It would be unsafe to generalize much from these pieces; how far New Zealand influences have worked on them is hard to say. Quite possibly, for the reason that transmigration of body is not sufficient in itself to alter a literary style, the editors may have inserted, among the verses of adopted Maorilanders, matter that was written before New Zealand came into their lives at all. At the most, one may venture to remark—provided a poet can be considered as in any wise a normal specimen—that the New Zealanders make love with much the same fervour as lovers elsewhere, are as much saddened by a luckless wooing, and rejoiced at a smile from their ladies; that when they write religious verse, it is of varying degrees of orthodoxy, sometimes forgets its aim of instilling right doctrine and gains thereby a fine line or two; that they can occasionally turn a blank verse line, and do not quite escape the charm of old Greek legends; that some among