RATANA RESENTS CRITICISM.

Shannon News, 16 December 1921, Page 2

RATANA RESENTS CRITICISM.

WILL ONLY TREAT MAORIS IN FUTURE. Ilatana, the Maori healer, issues the following statement through the press: From January last up to the present day 1 have received approximately 70,000 letters, not only from all parts of the Dominion, but also from the world over. Letters from the British Isles, Canada, India, Ceylon, South Africa, Commonwealth of Australia, U.S.A., Hawaii, Cuba, Brazil, Peru, Spain, France, Germany, Austria, Bulgaria, Czecho-Slovakia, Italy, Java, Tahiti, Fiji, Tonga, Samoa and Raratonga are continuously received to such an extent that postages and writing material becomes a big expense. However, practically every letter is replied to. The total expenditure to date amounts to £IOO. I defray all expenses, ask no one for help, although monetary offers were made by thousands of my own people as well as by pakehas. All the money in the. world will Jhever buy God’s blessing. Latest criticisms are so'frequent and antagonistic, especially that of Archdeacon Williams, j>f Gisborne,. and one or two others, that I feel impelled to write. ' I wish your readers to know what I have toleratedfor the pakehas during the past ia months. Thousands of sufferers have been healed of long standing ailments, which the medical realms failed ,to cure. My proofs are world wide, notof one particular kind of ailment, but of all diseases and defects. Premiers, members .of Parliament, ministers, lawyers, scientists, missionaries, titled personages, chemists, students, Government, officials and thousands of

others have asked for help and have been, cured. The time has arrived,, not from lack of sympathy or because of monetary expense, hut from continuous antagonistic criticism, that t have this day decided to discontinue 1 further assstance ito the world' sufferJ ers. In future I shall be assisting my ! own people to the truth and the faith; ; in the Almighty. < In a recent address at Palmerston ‘ North, Canon A.. F. Williams, of Napier expounded the somewhat remark- | able theory of demon possession and ; exorcision. The Church Gazette, m 1 the current issue, repudiates the views ’ of Canon Williams, and concludes an ‘ article by saying: “To sum up we assert without fear of rational contradicion that tlie main trend oi modern science is strongly against belief in 1 demons and demoniacal possession.’ 1