HAWERA ON CROMBIE BROWN.

Patea Mail, Volume V, Issue 494, 24 January 1880, Page 2

HAWERA ON CROMBIE BROWN.

To ihe Editor of the Patka Mail. Sm, —I have to request yon, through the medium of your paper, to inform th e settlers of Ha worn ami the surrounding District that Mr Crombie Brown has arrived, with the intention, I hoar, of paying a second interesting and instructive visit (as per his last report) to Parihaka, to interview the great prophet. The question is asked—Who is Crombie Brown? We can only reply that his antecedents are unknown to ns. He may be a disguised Duke, or an undisguised snob. According to his own statement, he told Te Whiti that lie represented the hugest and most influential paper in the island of the Greenstone; and that as a Greenstone Islander, in which place the pakeha outnumbered the pakohas of this Island, he bad come to sec Tc Whiti in

order that his fellow Greenstone Islanders might see fair play—that the settlers here did not overreach the poor aborigines of the soil, &c., &c. Such is the substance of Mr C. B.’s remarks to Te Whiti, ns written by himself. Onr own opinion is that, as writer of exaggeration, misrepresentation, persiflege, and rot, together with what our Yankee cousins would call “ high falntive,” he has few equals, and no superiors. We hope that tiie second visit of Mr Crombie Brown may lead to his seeing facts, not fiction, with regard to this district, and that if he has any sense of justice, he will be just enough to refute his statements that led readers of the Greenstone Island paper to imagine that the majority of the residents in this frontier settlement were a drunken lot, together with “ dirty Government tools,” to use his own words, (one of whom, by the bye, acted as bis guide and interpreter at Parihaka. We hope Mr C. B. will not find it requisite to carry a revolver to protect himself from the renegade whiles and half-caste scoundrels that infected the Waimate Plains. lam quoting C. B.’s own words. We hope he will call on Messrs Good and Breach, the only renegade lohites (?) that we know of on the coast, and interview them ; and we also hope that Mr C. B. will not bo so “ blind drunk ” or obtuse in distances to make the ride over the “ glorious Waimate Plains” from Hawera to Opnnake, sixty miles, being jnst double the distance it really is. We hope also that be will be able to correct his misleading statement that ho made to the Good Templars, when he told them that in To Whiti’s domains not a drop of liquor was to be obtained ; and his altogether misleading statement, that Parihaka is such a Garden of Eden he wished to make it appear. We can inform Mr Crornbie Brown that if he would only stop till the yearly meeting in March next, he would find hogsheads of beer, and gallons of spirits, put under the skins of the assembled natives ; and if ho had any wish to prowl about among the wharcs after dark, ho would find that Parihaka was a den of vice and iniquity, such as would not be tolerated in a civilized community. It is a well known fact by all who really know anything of the “ noble Maori,” that ninety per cent, of the young Maoris only attend To Whiti’s meetings fer wl at they can got to eat and drink, and for the midnight revels that take place in that Arcadian (?) retreat. While Te Whiti is holding forth, like many of the Pukeha sinners, the mass of Maoridom—male and female —with a very small exception in proportion to the numerous gathering of people, are otherwise engaged than listening to him, and very few of the younger Maoris, on returning from Parihaka, can state that they know' anything that the piophet has said.

Wo hope that another visit to Parihalca will not cause the hearts of the pakchas itr this district to be troubled with the announcement of the impregnability of Pf.rlhaha. IVl r Crombic Jirown lias no idea what a dampening effect it lias had on the settler's’ minds here, when they read that he who spoke as an ‘authority, having followed the position of war correspondent for four or five years the other side of the equator (he does not state how far off he followed that position), stated that five thousand men could not take Pnrihaka. Wo do hope that he will not return and say that it will take ten thousand this time ; it will have such a depreciating effect on property here, and ruin will stare ns hi the face. Bo considerate this time, Crombic j don’t pitch it too strong to To Whiti; don’t let “ myself” speak quite so much, or it will be too thin for the prophet. We arc afraid that he has seen through you now, Cronihie ; but we sincerely hope not. We certainly have noticed that Te Whiti has not said very much since Mr Crombie Brown’s last visit, but whether it was the effect of that interview, or the rude “ eyeopener ” the prophet received when he saw his “ ministering spirits,” the “ ploughmen,” put off the settlers’ land at the muzzles of the settlors’ loaded rifles, we know not; perhaps Mr C. B. may be enabled to enlighten us as to bow the prophet feels now about it ? And finally, do, Crombie, speak a good word for us at the Green Stone Island this time. We shall feel so thankful. We don’t like to hear of illicit distillation of maddening drink on the Plains, Crombie, and wo don’t like you to come to our bouses as settlers and drink our liquor and cat our dinners, and then give such a poor account of us to the Green Stone Islanders. We may not be such soft-headed and soft-hearted men ns your Green Stone men are ; but although rougher perhaps, remember, Crombie, what the poet says—- “ A mans a man for all that.”

Ami we hope we are men here, of course with the exception of the “ renegade whiles” that infests the district. We tried to get rid of them, but we cannot, owing to inability to find them. No doubt your scathing letter, Crombie, frightened them away, for which we are truly thankful to you, and we wish you every prosperity, and hope to watch your future movements and effusions.—l am, &c., “ One of C.B’s Dirty Govt. Tools ?” P. S.—l enclose my card in case Mr C. B. would like an introduction. o