RATANA’S POWER.

Taranaki Daily News, 2 July 1921, Page 10

RATANA’S POWER.

NOT IN THE MAN HIMSEUF. ' HE ASCRIBES IT TO THE DEITY, A REMARKABLE MAORI, (Auckland Star.) “E mohio ana koe Ratana?” (“Do you know Ratana?”) “Kahore.” (“No.”) “Pewhea tona ahut?” (“What’s he like ?”) “Aua.” (“Don’t know.”) The Healer, like Dr. Hertz, the Jewish Rabbi, has a strong objection to being interviewed by newspaper people, and is as hard to run to earth as a British Cabinet Minister was before the war. If one Maori standing this morning at the corner which the race affects when it is in town, were asked by the reporter for some clue to track down the Healer, at least a dozen were interrogated, and the invariable reply was a “Kahore” or an “Aua.” After many negatives and evasive answers at last the reporter who had been told off to find the man who during the past eighteen months has sprung from the obscurity of a resident of a little Wanganui village to something like fame, found out that his quarry was down the street, and certain descriptions relating to his entourage were sufficient to identify the strangers. The Healer had gone in search of kai, and knowing the Maori predeliction for sea fare, the reporter did a little Sherlock Holmes and scouted in front of a fish saloon. Sure enough, in a few minutes the clue proved correct. A native of about forty-five years of age, slender, clean-shaved, walking with a slight stoop, came out. His thin face and dep-set eyes bore all the marks of a man given to dwelling on things psychic, whether he be white, brown, or black. The type is the same all over the world. You get something of the same cast of features in some of the Lindauer pictures of old-time priests in the Partridge collection in the Art Gallerv.

SECRET OF HIS POWER. Although he speaks English quite well, Ratana does not apparently care to come in contact with Europeans, and there are always some of his entourage round to stave off anyone. No doubt there is very good reason. Ratana is no common man; neither is he after money or notoriety. He seeks no glory. He claims nothing supernatural for the man Ratana; he everything lie accomplishes to the Almighty. He uses the words of Christ (and without the slightest suggestion of irreverence), “Thy faith hath made thee whole.” That, in brief, is the secret of whatever/ power ! the man may possess. Unless the afflicted believe in the power of God to cure them they cannot expect to be made well. There is no laying on of hands; no healing touch; he simply tells the sufferer to pray and believe that he or she will be cured, and according to the faith of the patient so wi.ll be the restoration.

If you ask what is Ratana's religion you will be told that he embraces all those who believe in the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. He has a simple prayer which he gives those who consult him and tells them to pray that they may be made whole. He holds meetings anywhere and everywhere when on his pilgrimages. In a building, in a church, on the marae (or village square) —it is all the same to the Healer. All that is needed is a faith strong enough: the rest is with the Atua (God). As each patient comes forward the formula is the same. Halting within a few feet of Ratana, the question and answer are put, the prayer is given, and the number of people who go away cured is said to be remarkable.

A HEALING TOUR. This remarkable Maori arrived in Auckland this morning by the Ngapuhi from Tauranga with a large number of followers, who accompanied him on his tour right from the West Coast, where his home is situated. That it was quice a formidable party may be gauged from the fact that its expenses for the overland journey by motor cars from Napier came to about £l3OO. Ratana does not take any money from those he cures. He says (so his followers report) that he knows the power would go out of him if he were to take money for what he does, or rather what the Almighty does through his agency. Fortunately he is a man of means. He was a farmer down Wanganui way, and owns some property there. Just as Gandhi has achieved such a wonderful ascendancy over the natives of India by his self-denial and asceticism, so the disinterestedness of Ratana has a powerful effect on the native mind, added to whjeh is the long list of remarkable cures'that have followed submission to his ministrations. FIRST BOOTS FOR 29 YEARS. For the past few weeks Ratana and his following have been visiting the Hawke’s Bay, Gisborne, and Bay of Plenty natives in response to many invitations, as there were a lot of people anxious to see him who could not travel over to his part of the Island. At each village, or settlement, he has been preaching the Gospel, and healing. According to report some thousands of people have consulted him on the present trip, and in no ease was there a , failure. One remarkable case took place at a little village near Wairoa, Hawke’s Bay, where there was an old man who had not walked for 28 years—a victim of acute rheumatism. Within a few minutes after Ratana had told him how faith could cure him, the old fellow was walking as well as ever he did, and he at once went off to the township to buy the first pair of boots he bad had for 28 years.

WHITE WOMAN GETS SIGHT BACK. Ratana.’s itinerary included all the principal native villages in the districts mentioned, and the party’s land journey in motor cars extended to Te Araroa near the East Cape. From there they took launch, visited several settlements along the coast, and then on to Opotiki working thence along to Tauranga. At the last-mentioned port an astonishing incident is vouched for by members of the party. As most people are aware the healer refuses to allow white people to attend his meetings, but he is always willing to deal with them by correspondence, and for this purpose he keeps a young Maori as secretary. This young fellow is a returned soldier, and is now one of the healer’s adherents. What this means was instr need this morning. As the secretary stood on the sidewalk

waiting for his chief, a pakeha, who had evidently known him in the “old days,” greeted him effusively, and went on to talk about the fight the other night in the Town Hall, taking it for granted that his Maori friend had been, there.

“I only got in this morning,” replied the secretary. “Going out to the races?” asked the pakeha. “Have cut it all out,” was the reply of the secretary who made the military gesture with the hand meaning “a wash-out.” The 'pakeha was evidently puzzled. i But to get back to the incident at Tauranga. While Ratana was there a

letter came from a white woman who had lost the sight of one eye for some years, and she asked for advice. A letter was sent to her without delay, telling her to pray and believe that she would be cured. “And within fifteen minutes from the time she wrote the letter sh®

was cured and recovered the sight of the eye,” said the member of the party who told the story to a Star reporter that morning. , PAKEHA’S LETTERS. As mentioned before, Ratana has a secretary whose duty it is to deal with the correspondence from white people and the necessity for such an official is obvious when it is known that thousands of letters have been received by him in the last six months, and a large proportion of them came from the Auckland district. As many as 140 letters a day are found in Ratana’s postbag, and the postage on return letters ran into pounds. In fact, the expense was so great that the healer had to “cut it out,” as one of his staff put the matter. Asked whether many cures have been effected among the white people, his followers say that quite a number of letters expressing thanks and telling of cures have been received. They all quote the case of a lady at Nelson which was prominent in the newspaper a few weeks ago, and they say she has so much recovered that she intends making a trip over to the North Island to see Ratana personally and to thank him.

HOW IT BEGAN. There are various stories as to when and how Ratana first became aware of his power, or rather the power of faith, but the true account gives the incident as arising in his own family. The healer is a married man with seven children. About two years ago one of them, when a baby crawling on the floor, got a needle, in its body. A doctor was consulted, but the. needle could not be located, and the child was suffering. Taking it home the father fasted and prayed, and on the sixth day of his supplication the needle came out of the child’s knee. That was how Ratana. first learned what faith could do. The fame of the visitor has gone before him to all Maoridom, and this morning there was a rather pathetic little group of natives at the hostelry in Mechanics’ Bay. They were all anxiously waiting for the healer and had with them the halt and the sick, both in mind and body, and the eagerness with which they looked for Ratana’s coming was touching. They were obviously under much mental excitement, particularly one young woman, who had been brought in by her relatives in the hope that Ratana could • minister to a mind diseased, raze out the written troubles of the brain.” After a stay of two or three days in Auckland Ratana and a part of his following will go North, and visit all the native centres as far up as Parengarenga, preaching and calling on the sick to pray and have faith.