A FALL.
" Tiie potato is cooked" was an expression that found favor with politicians and others in the early eighties. The saying was coined by Te Whiti, who in those days was a power in the land, and whose lightest wit was caught up and given an ephemeral existence. Enthroned in Parihaka Te Whiti ruled his people in a mystic manner, but unfortunately for him his councils were not pacific. The end came when the Hon. John Bryce, on a white charger and supported by a small army of volunteers, ordered the arrest of the Parihaka prophet and his first assistant Tohu. It was in the hour of peril that Te Whiti gave us the phrase " The potato is cooked," and surely enough his wana began to wane. For a little while Te Whiti dropped out of public and official notice, which he appeared to resent, for presently he gained notoriety for resisting the payment of dog-tax. Again he dropped out of view, and may have remained in obscurity except for an enterprising journalist who has discovered that Te Whiti is now making himself useful by digging potatoes. The difference between swaying a sceptre and making epigrams and handling a hoe and digging " spuds " is great, and represents a mighty fall.
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Bibliographic details
Hastings Standard, Issue 234, 30 January 1897, Page 2
Word Count
211A FALL. Hastings Standard, Issue 234, 30 January 1897, Page 2
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