TE WHITI.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 11483, 16 January 1903, Page 3

TE WHITI.

TO KITE KDITOR OF THE PEESS. Sir, Your -'i-i-''--' in to-day's "Press" t.blv ('«■■> . ".lie ..,« c against Te Whiti. M ]._i- . ',r.-t:e-:i rather to vindicate h..< ;. ;.,.;;■ -.3 _n hene-sx man and a nat.-o. ; .a_i to def-.r.d his political attitude or censure -hat of his opponents.

I should not, again intrude, upon your space did I not wish to make an explanation. When I spoke of "adequate reserves being defined." I mean:- that such reserves should have been surveyed and mark-*d off be.ore the soct.onai survey was undertaken. Major Btown. in charge of the survey party, firm.y believed -hi. had such a course been adopted the .Maoris would have given no troub.e. It must be remembered tha. the surveyors were not removed from Waimate Plains un.ll they had cut a road throu li Titokawi.ru's erovvi .at Okal-aw a. Befoie that they had b.'er. allowed to work for seven or eight months without interruption. With regard to Hiroki. I am not aware if any a-tempt was nude to arrest him at Parihaka. Surely Te Whiti. who commanded his ploughmen ret to res.st the law. and allowed .limsslf to be tak-.n. would have made no effort on behalf of a man accused of murder!

For his latter refusals of investigation. Te W'hiti might well plead lack of faith in the proinlr-es oi -lie Government. Mr Siieehan, who must nave given considerable study to the matter, declared : "The whole country is strewn with unfulfilled promises, ar.d the Royal Commission censured the vacillation of the successive Governments. 'Te Whiti, by his ploughing campaign, designed to bring his cause hefore the most impartial tribunal of the land, the Supremo Court, but, as we have seen, failed.

As to Te Whiti's speeches—rel : gions, defiant, aggressive—what prophet could divine their meaning? They were metaphorical enigma?. He himself declared t'h-afc their mistranslation added much .o his troubles. When the old man dies, let us write over him the words of a NewZealand poet, "Not understood."—Yours, etc., V. 11. GORDON*. [Our correspondent is again very wide of the mark. If he looks up the records ho will sec that Te Whiti claimed the whole of the country, not a part. The suggestion that the "prophet" who proclaimed himself to be omnipotent, who told the Government that the Supreme Court must come to Parihaka and try Hiroki under his directions, and who flouted the Governor of the colony, was wili.ng, and, indeed, anxious, to have his own claims settled by the Supreme Court, is, on tihe face of it, ridiculous.—Ed. "The Press."]