The Schooner Came to Atia

Griffin Press, Auckland. 1952. This copy missing jacket.

Roderick Finlayson's distinctive contribution to the writing of New Zealand was the Maori stories of his first two collections. They portrayed a people caught between two worlds, as the urban economy insinuated its influence into traditional communities, bringing Pakeha bent on their dispossession. Although his rendering of Maori thought and speech has sometimes been criticised as simplistic, Finlayson's sympathetic yet unsentimental stories make him an important transitional figure between the colonial apologia of precursors such as A. A. Grace and the Maori writers who have succeeded him. -Te Ara