THE PARIHAKA INFLUENCE

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVIII, Issue 81918, 27 February 1907, Page 2

THE PARIHAKA INFLUENCE

YOUNG MAORIS' EFi'OKXS TO I JiJiEAK IT. TJiliJ WEIU WEKI MEETING. A SEVENTEEN HOOKS' KOKEItO. TOHUITES DECLINE TO JOIN IT WIUTi. PAIiIIIAICA PILGRIMAGES I'IiOBABEY PAST.

(By Our Special Reporter.) The Weriweri pah, Hastings road, was the scene of considerable excitement on Monday night and yesterday oyer the meeting ,to consider the ad visibility of appointing a successor to 'l'ohu, tlul late "prophet,'' and what should be done in i<?gard to the I'arihaka system generally. Jt takes a Maori a long time to do anything and a long time to say anything oiten a long time to pay anything and it was only in keeping witii the usual order of things 'that the Maoris should have taken about seventeen hours to thrash out the business they were assembled to settle. And, like true natives, they realiv decided nothing. For after the meeting they were as near a solution 0/ the questions exercising their minds as tliev were before the korero opened. home Waiokimi belles opened Hie proceedings with a dance of welcome. Then Te Kahnpukoro, always a protni iient friend of Tohu's, sprang to his feet and harangued his auditors. He paid tribute to Tohu's mana. Toliu, he said, was a great man. lie was possessed of supernatural powers. Did he not prophesy a lot of things that had come true? Did he not tell them some years before that the potato crops would fail, and that the Premier would die. Did he not tell them that the pakehas were not to be trusted, and would take all the laud they could from the Maoris? He (Kahu) had no prophetic power; his mana was not the same as Tohu's. Therefore he had no wish to take Tohu's place. One branch was withered; there was still a live branch. They could rest under the live branch if they liked. Xauke (one of Titokowaru's warriors, and an old man of much inlluence in the district) said he had been a believer in T'ohu, but Tohu had died. If he was a true "prophet" why did he die? Tauke continued: "Now Ido nothing; I will lie down. 1 won't support Te VVhiti 'or the Government. The Government take our lands away. , They are 110 good."

X Nga Hinu (a Hawera chief), Ngapaki (a Whenualuira chief), and Whakarua Waitotara) urged the Maoris not to go over to the To Wliiti camp. It, wa,s. a dangerous thing on (the Maori# t« support Te Wliiti, who could not live long, and who took their money and only gave them prophesies of doubtful merit in return.

The young Maori party was. in strong force. Led by William Fox, an enlightened native who was taken in band as a child by Sir William Fox, and educated at the hitter's expense they put up a big light for discontinuing the practice of wasting their time and substance in going to Pariliaka periodically. Tohu was dead now, and there was no chance of his being resurrected, and the present was a good opportunity of ridding themselves of Pariliaka altogether. Te Wliiti, they represented, was a fraud who could do them no good. The Government of the pakchas could do tliem good. Te Wliiti would die soon. The Government never died. Who was then the better to follow'! They had

some land, and this land they should work, and by so doing make a living like the pakehas. Some of the Maoris had cows and were making a good living. Why shouldn't they all do 'the same, and not throw their money away

at Pariliaka? Tiie Maoris wanted education. Could they get this better from Te Wliiti than from the Government? Of course they couldn't. There was no room for two systems they must either be like the pakehas

or degenerate, still further. And the time, had arrived when they should cah i halt and look at things squarely in the face, and not be forced to follow an old custom which was of no benefit to them, but which was pernicious in its etl'ect upon them all. Some of the older Maoris believed in going over to Te "Wliiti. If Toliu could not save them, Te Wiiiti might. Why shouldn't they give him a chance' Why should they be. dictated to by the young men of ,1 he hapus, who had no experience of the glories of the past and knew nothing of what was in store for the Maori race. There was a continuous flow of talk from 8 o'clock on Monday night till 1 o'clock the next afternoon, when it was seen that things would have to be left as they were—the 'Miuitcjs to stop at home, and the Te Whitiitcs to still pay their respects to the I'aviiiaka seer.

The question of deciding upon the disposal of Tohu's gold was referred to by the younger Maoris, hut the older moil believed the money should not. be touched yet awhile, and tlie old men had their way. Parihaka will be robbed of much or its importance if tiie Tohuites stop stop away from there in 1 future, for '.L'ohn's followers were lav greater in number tlvan To Whiti's. It should now be only a matter of a short lime when the l'ariliaka movement will die right out, as there seems little likelihood of a successor to IV liu being appointed. When 'J'e Whiti lias drawn his last breath, the young! bloods will have their way, and the Taranaki Maori of the next generation will become a tiller Oif the soil. Tlr l'ariliaka imlhieiice now retards to a very large extent the progress of t le race ill this part of the colony.