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Wellington Philosophical Society. 369 
employment of the Maori narrators in reducing these war songs to writing 
does not appear to be a reliable course to adopt in their collection, as it must 
be a process of translation of a most complex kind, and must lead to the loss of 
accuracy, both in matters of fact and in form of expression. 
A most interesting feature of the Maori language is the minute detail 
with which natural objects have been discriminated and named. In other 
savage races, such as the North American Indians, even those tribes which 
inhabited the thick forest country and had to obtain a livelihood by the 
exercise of the most perfect foresight and accurate knowledge of the natural 
phenomena by which they were surrounded, had only a few general names for 
objects which were not of immediate and practical utility in their affairs of 
every-day life. But the Maoris appear to have possessed a pure love of 
exercising their discriminating faculty. Every tree or shrub, useful or useless ; 
nearly every fish, of large size or insignificant; and even many insects and 
lower forms of life, that would remain unnoticed by most Europeans unless 
specially trained to the observation of such objects, have all distinctive 
Maori names. The frequent reference made to natural objects in their 
songs and traditions invests them with a richness of imagery adapted 
for the poetical expression of sentiments and emotions that could only 
have been feebly, if they were at all, developed in the minds of the original 
actors and narrators. One of the most important events, therefore, which 
has to be chronicled for the past year, in connection with literature and science 
in New Zealand, is the classical embodiment of these ancient Maori traditions 
and songs in the poem of * Ranolf and Amohia.” 
All who love natural history have reason to feel grateful to the gifted 
author of this work for the abundant allusions which he has made to the 
characteristic features of the fauna and flora of the country, and the care which 
he has exercised in making his descriptions accurate. When a poet qualifies 
himself to appreciate the precise relations of the objects that enter into the’ 
scenes he depicts, he will find that it is not necessary to sacrifice either facility 
or grace of expression in order to obtain the impressiveness which arises from 
strict accuracy. 
From this point of view Mr. Domett’s poetical descriptions of the natural 
history of this new country cannot fail to aid in linking the sympathy of 
literature and fancy with the study of science, and so do good service to those 
objects which our Society has most in view. 
While referring to the poetical rendering of Maori legends, I must not 
omit to mention the briefer, but commendable, poetical effort in the same 
direction by our fellow-member Mr. G. H. Wilson, whose graceful and 
vigorous pen has been devoted to the rendering of those legends which relate 
to events that occurred in past time in our immediate neighbourhood. 
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