 Cowan also wrote on Māori ethnography for the "Journal of the Polynesian Society" and "The Maori yesterday and to-day", and co-wrote "Legends of the Maori" with Maui Pomare.The First Labour Government granted James Cowan a pension in 1935, one of the first two New Zealand writers to receive state support.The deputation asking for this pension said of Cowan that he 'had never made any money out of his historical books but had done very good work for the country'.