FRAUDS SUPPRESSION.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 3769, 25 July 1907, Page 2

FRAUDS SUPPRESSION.

Parliament is about to suppress tlie Maori tohunga. The tohunga influences a comparatively small number of people, and a comparatively small race, but as it is de-

sired to save this remnant of a ] eop’e it is reasonable enough that tohuilgas should be suppressed—and hanged if necessarj'. Anything that will give the,Maoris an excuse lor knocking off work is welcome, as was seen by the following Rua the “prophet,” gathered round him, the disastrous effect he had on his followers, their pursuits, pockets, and health. There is no doubt the Tohunga Suppression Bill now before Parliament will pass. It must not be forgotten that many tohungas are murderers, for their “cures” frequently result in the death of their patients. In remote Maori villages it is particularly difficult to discriminate between the victims of the tohunga, and the victims of ordinary disease. One old rascal who lately put a sick child in a cold creek all night and then beat her to death in the morning with sticks, is still presumably at large. It is a little remarkable that these sort of folk cannot be dealt with in the ordinary way even without special legislation. But, as we have said, the Maori tohunga has control ot a small number of .people of a small race, and he is absolutely not a circumstance to the pakeha fraud who has a large race to work on, and a race, moreover, that flatters itself it knows things. Any impudent white rascal with sufficient faith in himself and a knowledge of human weakness, may establish a lucrative trade in a short time, and although he occasionally comes within the law as in the case of a Christchurch “specialist,” the large majority ply the nefarious business of pakeha “ tohungaism ” with impunity and much profit. As Mr Hone Heke said in the House, the Tohunga Suppression Bill does not go far enough. In fact, it deals with the smaller evil, and allows the larger one to go practically unchallenged. We have before to-day called attention to the large numbers of charlatans who might be included in a Bill to be called the “Suppression of Fraudulent Practitioners’ Bill,” and among these fraudulent practitioners we would class most of the ‘ ‘ psychometrists, ’ ’ ‘ ‘ palmists, ’ ’ crystal “seers,” “ Madames,” and the pill and ante-obesity kind, the ruffian who appeals specially to “young men,” many others of a like kind, and last, but not least, the “private detective and enquiry agent. ” We know all about most of these, except the private detective, and he is usually a rascal, whose special mission in life is to create discord. More divorces, family troubles, personal assaults, ruined lives, are caused through private detectives than by any other agency. No detective, other than those in the employ of the State should be allowed to ply the business, and the way our judges handle the hyenas of “justice” in the courts, shows what sort of a character the majority possess. Our boasted civilisation isn’t of sufficiently good quality to permit us to distinguish the false from the true, and although we may not, as the Maoris do, knock off work to follow a new kind of “crank” about, many of us have done things at the instigation of frauds that make the Maori look a reasonable being, in comparison. It the Government is out to suppress frauds, it should suppress all frauds, whether the people who carry them on are white, brown, or yellow.