THE FOX BOY: THE STORY OF AN ABDUCTED CHILD Peter Walker (Holiday 2001)

New Zealand, 1868. A century after the English landed in the antipodes and began kidnapping Maori natives as a battle tactic, a boy named Ngatau Omahuru is snatched from his parents, taken in by one William Fox (later prime minister), enrolled in English-run schools, and raised to be a lawyer. Walker, a vivid stylist and compelling thinker, wants The Fox Boy to be an enlightening hybrid of biography and colonial history, but his material won't allow it. On Omahuru's preadolescence: ''[T]here was nothing much to report of this period of his life.'' On what transpired during Omahuru's visit, as a teenager, to London: ''[T]he fact is that we don't know.'' On his return to Maori territory in 1878: ''This brings us to a point where it is best to admit ignorance.'' Yes, that might be best.