GIFT OF HEALING

Taranaki Daily News, 6 January 1921, Page 5

GIFT OF HEALING

A NEW ZEALAND LOURDES THE BLIND, HALT AND LAME. MAORI’S REMARKABLE POWER. 4 ■*!■■■ '* Some -wonderful cures of sickness, blindness, lameness are said to have been effected by a Maori named Taliu Wiremu Ratana, a farmer living near Turakina. Thousands of people, mostly Maoris, have gone to him for healing, and have leiTTnm satisfied that they are healed, Ajpong his most recent visitors js Mr. H. M. Stowell (“Hare Hongi”), of the Native Department, himself a Maori scholar and intimately, associated by blood and otherwise with the Maori people. He"\vas at Ratana (the station take* its name from the farmer’s family)" on 20th December last. Mr. Stowell 'paid his visit unofficially, and not perhaps without a trace of scepticism. He spent an afternoon And a night with Ratana and stayed in his house for the night. He was talking with Ratana until midnight. Speaking to a representative of the Post on his visit, Mr. Stowell said:—• “When I arrived on 29th December there were about 1000 Maoris tljere. Thay vpre dwelling in tents. There were, too, a few" Europeans. They were there, I supposed, out of curiosity. The record attendance waa on Boxing Day, when there were 3247 present. I arrived three days later at mid-day, and was conducted direct to Ratana. He was then taking a siesta, for he was very tired. He had then been at work healing the sick for three days. NO ASCETIC. “The first thing that struck me was the extremely mild and unassuming manner of the man; - his extreme naturalness, his modesty, the total absence in him of aay trace iff professionalism; also the mildness of his voice. He is not at all an ascetic in appearance; on the contrary, he is a Well-fleshed man, rather plum# if anything,. yet n.o.t too plump. I asked him his age. He told me 48. I should have thought him at least ten years younger by his appearance. He is just a settler, living on his father's place. There is nothing very remarkable in his appearance. “I asked him about his work. He replied, without the slightest hint of pious pride, or anything of that soTF: T am only doing -BMrz.duty under the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.* He said that in English, wMch he speaks very well. Then he conversed in Maori. I soon found that*from first to last he relies solels' Upon the power of the Holy Trinity. ’ “ That is—if T may say so—his king pin, the cardinal principle of his faith. “We_ had a talk for about 20 minutes. During that time 1 was absolutely convinced that Ratana thoroughly believed in his mission and power to heal the sick. Ido not doubt his bona fides for an instant. He is, above all, genuine in his faith in his gift. He believes that the power, or whatever we may call it, comes not of himself, but from above, i.e„ ‘The All-Highest,’ is the English of the Maori term he used.

LIKE A GROTTO OF LOURDES. “After I had had that 20 minutes’ discussion with him, he asked one or two of his .attendants to show me the exhibit room. There I saw about 150 walking sticks and crutches; 127 pairs of eyeglasses; a pocket handkerchief; and 134 bottles, each containing medicine; also a vacant invalid chair. Many of the walking sticks and crutches were given to Ratana by those who had relied ujjon them to get there, but had. walked off the place needing them no longer. In very many instances they could not have gone anywhere without sticks or crutches. The eyeglasses had been left behind by people who had gone there more or less blind, and some of them totally so. Of these latter I saw two cases. The handkerchief was left behind by a young girl who had worn it because she could not look upon light. It dazzled her eyes too much, and she had to wear the handkerchief to screen her eyes from the glare of daylight, She left Ratana needing nothing more of the kind. The medicines in the booties, I was assured by Ratana and others, were there as proof that the patients who had .taken them on the prescription of qualified medial practitioners, had been treated in the usual way, but, making no .progress, had been given up. As for the invalid chair, it had belonged to a woman who fiot only had to be placed in it, but sheTiad to be carried in it too, carried about in that chair. Very well; she walked away out of that chair after being healed by Ratana. She no longer needed it; and there it is.

Ratana keeps a record of all parents cured. I think he shows wisdom in this. He has the record signed by every patient who is healed, and urfder the signature is this legend in Maori:— E Whaka pono aha ahau Kua Ora ahau i te Matua te Tama me tapu te Wairua. (In English this reads: “I believe that my cure is entirely attributable to the Holy Trinity—the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.”) THE BLIND MADE TO SEE.

“As to his mode of procedure (Mr. Stowell went on): Well, I would say he is a perfectly normal man. I mean there is nothing about his appearance that would excite remark. .He is an inveterate smoker. He strolls about the camp in his shirt sleeves, pipe in mouth, hands in pockets. One going there for the fliVst time would say, ‘Where is Ratana?’ and be quite Incredulous when the healer was pointed out. Well, then, let me tell you of what 1 saw. A blind man was conducted to the healer, who motioned hink to take a chair. The man who took the blind man there sat him down in it. He could riot see jt for himself, of course, so he sat down. Ratana disappeared. He into the house. We felt that he was there praying Tor Divine power to heal. .He came back, and, in a perfectly natural voice, he carried on the following conversation with the blind man:—

“Ratana: : So you are blind?’ “The blind man: ‘Yes.’ “ ‘And for how long have you been blind?’ “ ‘For thirty-two years ’ “ ‘Do you mean that you haven’t seen anything for thirty -two years?” ‘“Yes, I do.’ “ ‘Did you ever carry a watch ? “ ‘Oh, yes.’ “‘When your watch got out of order, to whom did you take it?’ “ (after a pause): ‘To the watchmaker.” “ ‘And if your body is in a state of disrepair to whom ought you to take L&’

“ (After another pause): ‘To the Maker—if I could.’ “ ‘And do you then believe that i£ you took your body to the Maker of it that He would repair it?’ “ ‘Yes, I do.’ “‘Then I say unto you that there is a divine power, and that you havd brought your body under that power, which rests in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.-:—Now, what do I hold in my hand.’ And then Ratana, holding a watch in his hand, stood about two yards away from the man who was blind, who answered: “‘I cannot say.’ “Ratana then approached nearer by about a step or so, and repeated his question. The blind man cried: “You hold a match-box in your hand.’ Now, thirty years ago we used to have round tin match-boxes, and evidently the blind man thought the watch was one of these. “Ratana stood back a little and, still holding up the watch, said to the blind man: ‘What do I hold in my hand now?’ The blind man replied: ‘A watch/ “‘What time is it?” “ ‘Something past 2/ “‘What time is it now?’ “‘Ten minutes past 2/ And that jyas the correct time. “Ratana then said to the blind man: ‘Stand up’. He did <o. ‘Now, do you see that gate yonder?’ It was a gate some sixty yards away. “ ‘Yes.’ “‘Well, you walk down to that gate, and walk alone.’ “So the blind man walked to the gate and alone. When he returned Katana asked him: “‘Do you believe you are cured?’ “ He replied; ‘I do.’ “‘Then, said Ratana (speaking quite naturally and impressively), so long as your faith continues you willWremAin cured.’ ’ THE MAN WHO COULD NOT WAUL “And was that all. The blind man could see. How?” asked Mr. Stowell, “I know not; but he could not see before, and he could see now.” “Then there was escorted up to Raa man who came walking with the aid of two sticks. He was held by the arms. Ratana was standing there, smoking his pipe, and, oh, the natural ness of the man! There was no crowing over the cure of the blind, no euggestion of ‘how clever I am—all off my own bat.’ Well, Ratana turned to the poor man who had been led up to him, and said: “So you cannot walk? Do you believe in Divine power?’ “The lame man: ‘I do.’ “‘Do you believe that the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, acting each ,in, by and through the other, can do all things?’ “ ‘I do.’

“‘Then hand me that stick!’ So the man handed his stick to Ratana, who motioned to his escort, on the propless side, to stand aside, and, addressing the lame man, he said: ‘“Now step this way.’ He stepped forward. ‘That’s right. Do you feel any better ?’ f‘The lame man exclaimed with joy: ‘Ever so much better!’ “Ratana: ‘Now stand straight up; lift that other stick off the ground.” “The man cried: ‘But I cannot lift my arm.’ “Ratana said: ‘But I can; see here’; and he raised his own arm. As he did so he motioned aside the other man who had stood supporting the cripple, to whom he said: ‘Walk down to that gate; walk alone without support.’ “He did so; haltingly, at first; still, he walked, and that alone. Turning to him, Ratana said: ‘So long as your faith endures .10 long will your cure. You are altogether cured.’” Mr. Stowell said that at the meeting that day over 327 cases were treated. Each one of them signed the book that he had been cured. Ratana makes no charge whatsoever for his cures. A pakeha had surreptitiously left behind a bank note for a large sum. In some mysterious way Ratana knew of it; but he cried out through the camp that / someone had left money behind. It could not be accepted. The owner must step out and take it back. This was done. AN EYE-WITNESS’S TESTIMONY. The cure of the blind man and the lame man Mr- Stowell saw, and he testifies to these. He also attended a meeting in the evening. There were throe Maori clergymen present. They gave addresses along conventional linea They were not impressing. The service was held in the open air. A hymn was and that moat feelingly. It was Abide With Me”. Ratana closed the service with a very short address, but he seemed to Mr. Stowell to embrace • the universe. They were markedly impressed by Ratan'a’s address, its brevity and yet sublimity. One chief, a stranger to many there, said he came not to make speeches, but to bring his burden of suffering and to be relieved of it. Ratana said to him: “You have done to bring your burden of pain. You -will get rid of it here.” All present were much affected by this incident, said Mr. Stow-* ell. Ratana spoke with regret that a vi®it made to Wellington to induce the Government to have trains stop at Ratana station during the holiday had failed. He had, he said, pointed out that there would be thousands of sick and suffering present, and that they ought not to be jolted over the rough roads when the train could stop within 200 yards of the camp. But he did not succeed in getting the trains to atop. Water had to be brought for the 3000 people from Turakina, three miles away.