RATANA MOVEMENT.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIX, Issue 5297, 9 July 1928, Page 2

RATANA MOVEMENT.

ENTHUSIASM WANING. ANOTHER MENACE RISING. “Th© Ra,tana movement still causes a sad diminution in the attendance at the services,” stated Canon W. G. Williams in his report on the Maori mission presented to the Wellington Diocesan Synod, “but, Maori-like, the enthusiasm for their newly-founded church is decidedly waning. Several of the principal leaders have openly broken with the movement, and we may hope that in time we shall see many of the misguided ones, coming back to the Church. One cannot say, however, that there is any definite movement in this direction at present. “Another menace, which, many of us feared would arise with the decline of the Ratana influence, is now becoming evident in the tendency of many of th© people to resort to the Maori tohungas, or spirit doctors. One man in particular is attracting a number of devotees in the district between Ot,aki and Palmerston; and these men are so clever at keeping within tihe letter of the law that there appear to’ be no If gal grounds for putting a stop l to’ their practices. Nothing but a' deeper grasp of Gospel truth can savethe people from the wiles of these spirit mediums, an'd it is just this definite consecutive teaching which it is so difficult to impart to such a scattered flock.”