Abstract
Tonight we are gathered here to celebrate the launching of the last instalment in a remarkable venture of New Zealand scholarship and publishing: the Introduction to the four volume series, Ngā Mōteatea. This Introduction fulfills the intentions of Apirana Ngata who wanted to provide readers with a “pocket edition” (p. 9) containing a song selection that might entice them on to sample more fully the diverse range of songs contained within the other volumes. That ambition, first announced in 1933, has been amply achieved in this bi-lingual work by Jane McRae and Hēni Jacob.