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Taranaki Daily News, 5 October 1922, Page 4

A notice appears in the auction columns re the postponement, of the next Uruti sale. Ratana is. doing a good deal of harm to the Maori race, states “a Christian Maori,” in a letter to the Wanganui Chronicle. He enumerates his harm—(l) By preventing them from calling in medical aid until too late; (2) by the congregation, and housing in close quarters, of hundreds of natives, many of whom suffer from consumption and other diseases; (3) by the inconveniences at such meetings for sick people; and (4) by providing food wholly unsuitable for anvalids. So much for the health standpoint. Now for the religious. I cannot understand how the enlightened clergymen of the different churches have been so gulled. To start with Ratana claims that his Covenant is that Book of Life spoken of in the 15th verse of the 20th chapter of Revelations. He has stolen the Book of Life, of which, by the way, God is the Writer, and he says it is his Covenant, and that those whose names are /not found therein will be cast into the Lake of Fire. Seeing that the Covernant is now closed, it follows that no one has any further chance of salvation: He has thus arrogated unto himself the functions of the Almighty. In passing, if Ratana is right, then the Churches had better be closed, the clergy give up their jobs, and the world jog along as merrily as it likes. Further, there are many Christian Maoris who are sorely perplexed as to Ratana’s attitude towards polygamy. Is it true or is it not, that quite a number of his followers. who have signed his Covenant,) and leading polygamous lives? There, are many other things about which 1 might write to you, such as the numbers of those who have died and have been buried in his village, and also the numbers of those who have died and been taken back to their homes for burial.