THE REFORMED RUA

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 120, 30 August 1910, Page 5

THE REFORMED RUA

FOLLOWERS RETURN TO WORK. Rua, the long-haired Maori prophet, the man of many wives, who for some time threatened the peace of the Urewera district, has departed from Wellington to his home again. He did not come south looking for "trouble" (sayt the Dominion), but for the peaceful and eminently useful purpose of offering to sell land to the paheka Government He now offers, not a award, but an olive branch. This fact was emphasised by Mr. W. D. S. Macdonald, member for Bay of Plenty (in which electorate Rua resides), in conversation with a reporter. Rua, he said, was now disposed to deal reasonably with the Government in regard to the important matter of land settlement and other matters. For example, two and a half years ago, Rua, the aggressive and aloof, declared that the Maoris should not allow the pakehas to educate their children, and he induced the Natives to leave the settlement of Waimana, with the result' that Native scool there was closed. To-day Rua is anxious that the school should be re-opened, and in all probability this will be done. The Minister for Education will, however, give Rua a chance of proving his sincerity by insisting upon a certain area of land being dedicated for school purposes. It is probable that Rua's reform should be credited to the growing sense of his people. At one time he had influence enough to make his people sell land, stock, ana everything to follow him, but the results of this singular act of enthusiasm did not satisfy them, and now they are going back to the order of things which obtained before Rua, with his quaint religion, roused them. The great majority of Rua's people are leading industrious lives, and when not bushfelling on their own sections they are maizepiciking or fencing. Another fact to their credit, Mr. Macdonald states, is that although their prophet is married in a sort of a way to several women, the followers generally content themselves with one wife apiece.