TE KOOTI.

Southland Times, Issue 1153, 25 October 1869, Page 3

TE KOOTI.

(Wanganui Chronicle. J

The following particulars touching the character and proceedings of the notorious Te Kooti, are extracted from a private letter from Tauranga, which has been placed at our disposal : — " Now that Te Kooti has left Waikato and taken up his permanent quarters at Taupo, we are getting all quiet again. It is impossible to make out the quarrel between Te Kooti and the King. For my j>art, I think it is merely a dodge to gain' time, and, whatever the King may think himself, it is certain that all his followers have embraced Te Kouti's views, and that thirty -five of the Ngatimaniapoto accompanied him back to Taupo. Te Kooti is certainly a wonderful man. At a great meeting hold at Tokangamutu, he is reported to have spoken to 3000 people for five hours — reading every now and then long extracts in English from a ' great book, which was carried by one of his attendants. In scriptural arguments and quotations he was more than a match for any one at the meeting. The jealous, proud Waikatos were so carried away by his arguments that they gave a shout, saying, ' It is the voice of a god and not of a man.' (Acts xii, 22). On one occasion, at Taupo, there was a strong party of the Ngatituwharetoa, who shut themselves up in their pab, and refused to have anything to do with him, or to listen to his demands. He marched his men round the pah seven times, and then drew up in front of the gate. The people inside then poiri hirVd (waved their garments) and called out to welcome him. He said, 'I must be welcomed, not by men's voices, but by thunder,' meaning by the firing of guns. The people fired their guns, and then Te Kooti came forward with a man's head under each arm. Holding up first a Pakeha's head, and then a friendly Maori's head, he addressed the Ngatituwharetoa in these words : — ' Choose for yourselves ! lam sent by God to destroy the worshippers of Baal. If you join me, you must wage war against both European and friendly Maori ; and if you fight against me, I will pierce your bodies with swords, and make you food for the birds of the air and beasts: of the field.' The natives, entirely carried away by the novelty of these proceedings, and the oratorical powers of the speaker, joined him at once. Nearly all the Taupo natives who, when I visited them last year, were settling down so quietly, have been drawn into his ranks."