Nelson Evening Mail. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1880.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume xv, Issue 229, 27 September 1880, Page 2

Nelson Evening Mail. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1880.

An interesting' article Ton the curious a,nd ,- ;; exceptional nature of the power exercised :by the two notorious , natives .Te Whiti and 1 Tohu appears in. the Post of Saturday;, , and is based upon information received by that ; journal upon what.ijt .considers thoroughly '['' ". reliable authority. ■' The; implicit obedience ''" 'rendered by "the Maoris' to. these two; nien has been a source of wonder to all who have for the last two years; watched the course -of events oh r the : West Cdasfc^of thja NorthIsland. They have but to give an order, and, ; no matter what 1 the consequences , may tye, thejr instructions are carrried out to the letter without any question whatever being raised by those to whom the mandates are issued. But, the two men appear to owe their '• power to entirely different causes, Tohu, jto the intense awe in which he is T held ; Te " Whiti, to the belief that exists not only in '. • his miraculous powers but in his willingness '.■'. to exercisp those powers forthe advatage of those .who obey I his behests Tohu. rules through fear, Te , Wbitr through' hope. "The natives, generally,". ..says:, our contemporary, '-'..entertain not the slightest doubt that. Toby, by ; ; gazing ifredly into the face of anybody 'he desired" Jo '•• gefcrid of, can cause 1 the* unhappy man jto wither away and^die incontinently without , ; - the' intervention of; disease -br violence. It . is actually on. record' tha,fc on two • occasions men upon .whom he, has thus brought to bear the glance of the ;-' evil eye,' have gone awa|y „. and died very shortly after-wards. Whether - their deaths. res.ultedfronvsheer terror, frojn ; ; nervous excitement,' or; from any occult disease, we do uot pretend- to decide, bat it is not eurprisising that the natives regarded the occurrences as [frightful ."examples of >the dire .resuHs rwbich followed 'on Tohu's maledic- . tions, and consequently live in abject fear lest any. indiscretion on ■'their '■ rarfc -' should bring . upon, themi a: similarly fatal manifestation of his:; wrath. '< Tohu • therefore has but to issue his' mandates to have them obeyed- -with trembling bbsequibusnes.f' With Te Whiti the case is different. ; He is .obeyed; not lest he should punish! those whjo question- his authority, but in ' order totensure :. his good will, and to obtain a' share of those . benefits which- the Maoris firmly believe that be is able to dispense when so; disposed. For . instance, believed to be able jp raise . the dead as well as .to kill the-living. More- ' over, he is reputed to possess! the supernatujral faculty of making men appear to- them;- --' selves and their fellows to be all alive and ticking, although really as. dead" as so. many door, nails, All the prisoners whose;captivity has been,, caused ; by their obedience to Te Whiti's commands are pronounced by, him to be no longer in the land .of 'the living, but merely so many' corpses miraculously animated' by him with a Sort of galvanic vitality which; he, by the breath of his nostrils, 1 - can suspend 'at will or re convert into ordinary life and energy. They, have died} he says, as martyrs for the truth— his word, being the truth — and are canonized accord-j ingly. He.cjaims.to exercise upon earth all the functions and powers scripturally attri-j buted to ihe triune Deity, and declares thatj when the proper time shall come, he will in- ♦ Btitute a general resurrection of "all'those" wild have died in obedience to his commands, that being the signal for the final : destruction of all Europeans — in their reduction to hopeless slavery — and the restoration of the Maoris to; their Promised Land, or rather the 'r.estora-.. tion to them of ail their sold or confiscated" territory. Meanwhile, they are "dead" to; the world ; the issue is in the hands of thei all-powerful Te Whitj, in whose care also are! their wives and families. ITrom their pointj of view they have all to gain, and ; nothingj to lose by obedience , to Te Whiti, while! disobedience, would inevitably bring down; on : • their i devoted '■ heads the terrible wrath of the mighty Tohu, from whom,: while they are "obedient, Te Whiti and; .lie , alone,,, is able, :v to ;, protect them."; 'The two chiefs are.^not slow to encourage j this superstitious belief in ,thejr super natu- . ral powers, 'and : it is believed- by ; some that : mesmeric influence. is, not entirely unused by \ them, while others think that .ventriloquism ' ia occasionally"' resorted to: The l oth'er "day, • for instancjßjiiyrphu.washeard'holding^con- : verse with*nis 'at'ua,' or, familiar spirit : the two separate voices being remarkably distinct, and apparently in different parts of the ■whare of wbichLTdntflwas the sole occupant. A long argument jf as- heard tp^b.e. carried on between' Tohu andJhis supernatural guest, on the subject of the fencing,;?the : latter icontending that enough had already, been done in this way, but' Tohu 1 urgiiig'tbat J it ! should be tried^ j little lopger. iTheS: 'conversation

. closed, leaving Tohu still unconvinced, and the spirit still persistent. Tohu, with singular tact and cunniug, said not one Word about this conversation, but—as he doubtless was aware— a large number of natives had listened outside with curdling blood to this terrible dialogue, which they only ventured afterwards to speak of in awe-stricken whis : pers." , Supposing these wonderful instances' of credulity to be true, our contemporary goes on to argue that' the treatment of the natives by whom itis displayed as reasonable beings becomes an impossibility and that all that is left for us to do is to persistently push on the settlement .of the district, and to patiently wait for the inevitable results of the advance of civilisation. The trial, conviction, and sentence of the " political fencers" under the West Coast Settlements Acfc may, perhaps, induce the natives to take a new view of matters, and tend to shake their faith in those who now hold them in such cruel and complete mental bondage." ••• - . •