TOWN EDITION. The Daily Telegraph WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1881.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3192, 21 September 1881, Page 2

TOWN EDITION. The Daily Telegraph WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1881.

Te Whiti's recent address at Parihaka is the most hostile to the peace of the colony that he has, yet delivered, and it bears a significance whiuh his previous speeeb.es did not possess. As long as fhe Government were merely preparing by survey, and by road-making to take actual possession of the confiscated lands on the West Coast, Te Whiti confined hie utterances to vague threats. The presence ot a large force of Armed ConBtabulary changed his tune, and the knowledge that his best fighting men were in prison promoted the assumption of the character of a prophet of peace. With the alteration of circumstances the mission of the prophet has changed. The prisoners have been released, and have returned to him, with a firmer belief in his power than ever, and prepared to do his every behest. They are completely under his spell; he can calm their minds to peaceful repose, and to resignation to the decrees of fate ; or he can inflame their passions to the prosecution of the most savage of warfare. The people are now ripe to do whatever Te Whiti tells them ; and he has told them that " fighting must come." The prediction does not involve the formation of an army for the invasion of the settled districts; that may come by and bye; perhaps there will be nothing of the kind. It is more likely that the " fighting " will be commenced in the old fashioned Maori way, a way that is certain to provoke hostilities. It may be, perhaps, a month before we shall hear anything more of a warlike character from tbe West Coast. In the meantime provisions will be collected in some forest fastness; the women and children will be sent away, scattered amongst the [ pas of thefriendlynatives; appearances will be suspicious, but nothing more. At tbe chosen moment the fiat will go forth ; the messenger of death will creep from his hiding place, and, when all is outwardly peaceful, tbe news of a bloody murder and the burning of a homestead will proclaim that the propbet is on the war-path. It will be the old story over again. It has been a hard struggle, we may be sure, for Te Whiti to have held bis hand so long ; but now that be sees the accomplishment of confiscation, the homesteads of settlers springing up in all directions around him, the evidences of civilisation coming to the very edge of his plantations, he can play a peaceful part no longer. Hence bi3 impassioned words:—" I am the laad and all the people are in my hand. All the evil which formerly existed in the land is upon us. From the time of Israel there has been fighting in the land. Eighting against the Government and against the King. All our talk to-day is of fighting, and nothing is now left but to fight. The peace that existed has passed away. There is no peace now. You have tried to keep the peace, but were not allowed. Whatever you do be not'boastful, for the Atua looks on all your doings. There will be no teaching to-day, for all is trouble around me, and the talk will be of fighting, for nothing but fighting will put what is wrong right. All that I seid before was on account of the land, which is dearer to us than life ; but the stranger has come and settled on it, and we are driven off what is our own. The evil of the world is worse now amongst us, and there is nothing to stop it but to fight. Let the Governor and the King listen to tbe words of this meeting. Let them take heed what I say. Let them depart from the land." There can be no mistaking the import of this language. And it ia the more fraught with danger to the peace of the country by being followed by the bloodthirsty speech of the fighting chief Tohu, which he would not have dared to have uttered without the sanction of the prophet. "Those who wish for fighting," be said, " come this way You who are far off come this way. All I have got to say is fight and kill. Do not save. We will not be swallowed up. It is not I who say this, but the Atua (God) through me who utters the words—the A.tna who ia the guardian of both races. You are not fighting for the small pieces of laud, but for the whole of it. We have talked before of peace, but that is all past now. Everything is altered from this day. What I say is said that &U the people may bear it. It has been said that the Governor owns the land. It is not so, and his taking it has raised this pahanga (war) over the land. The Atua approves of what we are doing. It comes from him what I am saying. Things have been quiet for a long time, but that has passed away. Destroy all before you." These words require no comment, but they show, as nothing better could Bhow, that Mr Bryce, the late Native Minister, was right when he insisted upon the capture of Te Whiti. It may now so happen that the colony will have to pay dearly for its folly in allowing Mr Bryce to retire for the sake of keeping a weak and pusillanimous Ministry in office.