RATANA’S MISSION.

Shannon News, 12 August 1921, Page 3

RATANA’S MISSION.

———i-U HEALEII TO VISIT''THIS COAST. HOW. HE BECAME INSPIRED. It is reported that Ratana, the Maori faith-heaier, will shortly pay a visjt to the West Coast, making his headquarters at Otaki. A remarkable story of how Ratana, the Maori faith-healer, became hispired to perform his mission was told by the Rev. Piri Munro, a member of Ratana’s party, to a Christchurch audience last week. Mr Munro said he would tell, first of all, how the wonderful power of healing came to' Ratana, who was an ordinary Maori, holding a small farm, and was about 40 years old. During the influenza epidemic Ratana was impressed with the appalling amount of sickness, arid he gave, this much, thought. One day., as he was sitting on his verandah, he noticed what seemed to be a ball of cloud rise from a large pond in front of the house, and after flying over some sandhills it burst. Ratana fell asleep 1 , and knew no more till he awakened in the evening, while still sitting on the verandah. Shortly after that he commenced to take peculiar "fits and walked alone about .the farm, crashing through fences and other obstacles. While in this peculiar mood he would . not allow anyone to come near' him. About this time, while sitting with.his family in the sittingroom one day, his mind suddenly became a blank, and he sat in a dormant state for five hours, till at night his wife roused him to go to bed. Later Ratana became subject to violent moods, and while in these he would break up the furniture in the house, and smash the telephone. He became so violent while in these moods that his wife arranged for him to be sent to the Porlrua Mental Hospital. He was strapped to a chair while the party which was to take him to the institution awaited the arrival of the train. Ratana was asleep, but half an hour before the train arrived he awakened, say his bonds "and asked,' “What is the meaning of this?” They told hint, and he said, “If you have any love for me, take these off,” and they released him. From that time onward, said the Rev. Mr Munro. the violent fits had not occurred.

Ratana remtained a,t his farm, and one day, while in the sitting-room, he a ball of cloud, similar to the one he had seen previously from his verandah, at the other end of the room. As before, it burst, but &iis time it appeared to divide into two forms, and one seemed to become a celestial being. He slept again. Ratana had a nine-year-old hoy who had unsuccessfully undergone several operations in hospital, and he was to be sent to the hospital once more for another operation. Ratana said. “The boy will be operated on, but not by doctors. It will be by the hand of God.” The boy was cured of bis affliction, and from that time on Ratant did nothing else but attend to hundreds and hundreds of afflicted Natives. Last Christmas he invited the Natives to assemble at his small farm, where he had had a meetinghouse elected. He did some wonderful healing, and people began to realise that the source of his power was something above the natural.