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Hear Our Voices We Entreat, Max Cryer
Exisle
Reviewed by John Whelan (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)

Hands up those of you who can sing all five verses of God Defend New Zealand? Hands up who knew there were five verses of God Defend New Zealand? What about singing it in Maori?

As well as giving you this information, this is one of those books that supplies the reader with lots of "Did you knows". For example, did you know God Save the Queen is still one of New Zealand's national anthems? Did you know it wasn't until the rowing eight won gold at the 1972 Olympics that God Defend New Zealand was played for the first time at an international event, even though it wasn't our national anthem? Did you know it took another five years for it to be officially recognised as such?

Max Cryer uses an extensive knowledge of New Zealand history combined with his trademark dry wit to present a book that gives you everything you did and didn't want to know about New Zealand's national song, from its origins, its rise in popularity and its subsequent decline.

The hoary chestnut of the relevance today of a song written in the 19th century by an Irishman to a tune penned by an Australian, asking a God the majority of people don't believe in to defend us and hear our love, is looked at again.

Bob Lowe points out the oddity of the situation when on the rugby field "the words `the bonds of love' are followed by a bloodthirsty haka". But as Max Cryer asks, what would it be replaced with? The national anthem has plenty of knockers – it's old-fashioned, formal and hymn-like, but no suitable replacement has ever emerged.

The anthem does indeed have a surprising history and Hear Our Voices We Entreat explores the people and the events that shaped it into becoming a song that, for all its faults, will have us singing or humming along to it at the start of the next big game.