AN EAST COAST OPINION. TE KOOTI'S "LITTLE GAME."

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 347, 2 March 1889, Page 4

AN EAST COAST OPINION. TE KOOTI'S "LITTLE GAME."

A piivatc letter from Gisboine speaking of Te Kooti says : ' ' What a mess has been made in dealing with this fellow the last three years. Surely the prominent people ought to know what Te Kooti is by this time. A ianatic and a hard drinker certainly, but the most cool clear-headed scamp for all that. Ido not think he really intended coming to Poverty Bay at all till lately. But to have Ministers, and Government Officers and an II.M. dancing in small crowds after him and imploiing him not to go to Gisborne, adds to his mana and ho is shiewd enough^ to see it. The longer he can keep this up the gieater will he be in the eyes of the Maori. He will* go as far as he dares and will then say to the imploiing Governmen I cannot resist your appeals any longer and will letmn to Waikato. Gicatihen will be the rejoicing in the Native Office — the curse of all the East Coast — and what humiliation to ha\e the country put to such expense, and e%ery thing out of gear, by the mere whim of a scheming old savage. He i& worse to the Maoris than a plague of locusts where\er he goes with his horde, eating out of house all they come near, and leaving only starving villageis behind him. He meant to come to Poverty Bay, I believe, this time, for he ordered potatoes to be planted at different places along the road]six months ago. It is a pity all their big nathe meetings cannot be pub astopto, for they ruin theindustriousnatives and are simply a God-send ror the lazy. Maori honouis would be outraged if their crowds of visitors were not fed, even if the ho?tb are left without anything for themselves afterwards."