PARIHAKA.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XVI, Issue 256, 27 October 1881, Page 3

PARIHAKA.

Tbe followirg tetter from the correspondent of tbe NZ Times will be read witb interest jußt now:--"As a literal trenslation of Te Whiti's speech, the report issued by Ibe P«bs Association cannot be cavilled atj but &i ihe j *ame time it leaves one perfectly in the dark as to the meaning of tbe propbef. All the talk about Jehovah ia sweet in tbe ears cf the Maori?, because tbey consider themselves the tribe t>i Israel, of whom Jehovah is tbe God. All tbe gasconade of the bruising of tbe heel of the descendants of Eve, and tbe breaking of the bead cf tbe serpent is particularly grateful to bis audience, because he gives them to understand that, as j the serpent wis typical of the devil, it is also typical of the European^ whose power is now to be broken. The whole of Te Whiti's I scriptural ideas amount So this: The poor •bali be ricb, and the rich poor; the great small, and the small great. " Those wbo hive oppressed ycu shall be your sfervanti." The ultra -flattery of his discourses keeps his followers steadfast; tbp apparent fulfillment of his prophecie-j * u y the release of the prisoners from o;f, 0 l gires then confidence ; the perfect pre-eminence of his audacity carries all before him : the air of perfect faith in himseif which characterises all his utterances, gains a sympathetic belief in his hearers ; and the perfect coincidence between his utterances and those of Tohu— supposed by their hearers to he without collusion — makes certainty doubly sure, and seals the bond of fanaticism. Israel shall come again into its own ; the chosen people of Jehovah shall at last gain a supremacy which shall be undisturbed for erer. These form the germ of Te Whiti's tenets as regards Scripture. Turn to secular ideas aud Te Whiti says nothing, but wishes to make a covenant with the head of the Europeans, he being the head of the Maoris, in his own conceit. He repudiates the Treaty of Waitangi because his tribes never signed ifc, and therefore are not British subjects. He ignores the proclamation of confiscation because the land was taken from them as rebeis, when, not having signed the Treaty, they never became British subjects, and therefore couid not become rebels. He says that, if they were all British subjects, those in arms against the Government had their land conserved to them, and not Confiscated b « Sir Geor S e Girey^S proclamation. He affirms that money promised for land purchased hy Government has never been paid ; that awards made by the Crown in%nable, have been alienated by recommendations of Ministers to the Governor in Council ; tbat subordinate owners of land, willing to sell, have been awarded land in preference to the real paramount owners, who wished to preserve their lands for their children ; and that, altogether, a great injustice has been done to his tribes, nofc by the? General Government of New Zealand, hut by the Government of Taranaki. Your correspondent moves to tbe ft-onfc tomorrow, perfectly certain thafc not a shot will be fired, equally sure that the Natives will continue their obstructive work, confident that nothing but tbe breaking up of Parihaka will end tho diffic»lty, acd positive that this Can only be done by the arrest of the whole. Mr Bryce bas bow a task before bim infinitely more difficult than when he proposed hia ad ▼ance on Parihaka j and tba <s kudos " he will gain should be proportionately large. He is undoubtedly tbe man for the situation, and your eorrespohdant believes has the good wisbes of ali. Te Whiti forgets that many, in fact mest, bf the Natives collected at Parihaka, have no interest in Taranaki lands, and that not only these, but of those who are bis followers there are a great number who have no claim on tfce confiscated lands at all. Ngatitama, Ngatiawa, Taranaki, Ngatirunui, and Ngarauru, all have lands confiscated, but the tribe which has the greatest humber of members at Parihaka, vi*., Whanganui, has never iost a single acre by confiscation. Another thing Te Whiti forgets, or rather doea not wish to "remember, is this — that although they migbt not be rebels because they wera not British subjects, they were, Sf bis idea iB correct, belligerents who fought against us and lost, and therefore are subject to forfeiture of their landß by conquest, not only by the laws of civilised warfare, which allows the victor to dictate the terms he wishes to impose for hlood and treasure lest, but alio in strict accordance with the ancient custom of the Natives, wbi<;h vests in tbe conquerors the right over the land inhabited by the vanquished tribes. Stripped of all imaginary grievances, Te Whiti's real standing .point is but small. Perhaps tbe greatest grievance he really has is tha confiscation of the land of loyal Natives, and those actually flghtiog on our side ; but he makes no distinction between those who fought, and therefore had their lands righily confiscated, and those who remained loyal, and suffered the sams lopb illegally. An attempt to distinguish between the two, made by your correspondent in Te Whiti's own meeting honse, was received with tbe greatest contempt " Commenting on the foregoing tbe Times says :— The letter of our own correspondent from Paribaka, gives a calm and deliberate review of tfae position there, wbich in every respect confirms our previously expressed opinions. Te Whiti will cot be convinced, and his followers still place implicit Jsiih in hia prophecies and maunderings. Nothing apparently will convince tbem of their folly but the total sweeping away of Parihaka and tbe arrest of Te Whiti and bis fellow-plotter Tohu. That Te Wbiti is ill at ease and preparing, with his accustomed cunningness, to be ready for any eventuality, is sufficiently indicated in the later news conveyed by Press Association telegram, in Which he says, oracularly, tbat in a Bhort time Parihaka will neither belong to the Maori or the Fakeha. It is in these vague prophecies that his main power lies, but if the expression conveys any meaning at all, it is that he intends to make a virtue of necessity, and leave it to its fate whenever retreat becomes inevitable. With the force now on the ground, and the auxiliaries rapidly gathering, there should be no difficulty in circumventin-z Te Whiti, and making a speedy example of him and his moit familiar associ stes.