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Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2027, 12 March 1907, Page 3

In the eradication of the Californian thistle Mr Keys, of Toiro, has been singularly successful; and by it nrnrotu -"'t jbh 10ac h 0 f a ny settler. A 30-acre paddock was very badly infested, and Mr Keys decided to see what could be done with it. Last season he ploughed, grubbed, and thoroughly worked the land and sowed Dun oats. As a result he proudly points to a cheque for £4OO (which he got from 80 tons and eight bags of chaff at £5 a ton), and'the thistles almost eradicated. “There is hardly one now,” he says, “w'here before 10,000 grew.”—Eltliam Argus. The extraordinary part played by Te Whiti and Tohu, the Parihaka “prophets,” in the lives qf the Taranaki and outside natives during the past thirty years has no parallel in the whole of the history of .the Maori

raco. Those men, according to tho Taranaki Nows, have stood between tho Maoris and progross; they have preserved to a great extent superstition and mystification amongst their followers, and blocked tho growth of civilisation and its effects; thoy have oxortod such potent influence over their followers as to Imvo demanded and gained tribute which collectively is now supposed to run into over £50,000, thereby keeping tho natives in a state of comparative impoverishment ; and generally lmvo commanded m influence over tho Maori raco greater than tho influence exerted by any Government, any section of individuals, Maori or pakeha combined. Tohu, it will bo remembered, died recently. The followers of tho late chief aro now holding a mooting, tho objects of which aro to consider the question as to whether a successor to Tohu should he appointed ; or, instead, to renounce altogether the I’arihaka faith, and to docido upon the manner of tho disposal of the heard of gold loft by Tohu. Besides the Tohuites, there is quite a number of representative To Whiti-itos prosont.