A WANGANUI HEALER.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1109, 24 May 1883, Page 3

A WANGANUI HEALER.

A well known native named lire te Augint, a member of the Ngarauru tribe, and resident at Pakaraka, has set up as a healer a la Milner Stephen, and for the short time ho has been practising the art, has achieved a very remarkable success. The natives have heard of his cures, and are now flocking to Uru by the score, Uru’s mode of operating on his patients is as varied as that of the great Stephen himself. He has no products of modem civilisation to act as adjutants, such as magnetised oil and red flannel, but this knowledge of medical botany is extensive, and after the “ laying on of hands,” he generally gives a herbal prescription. Uru prays very fervently over this patient, pro fessing to have received special virtue from above , which he imparts to his subject if the latter is in a proper state of mind to receive the gift. The Natives, who have been at Pakaraka, have brought away with them the most perfect faith in Uru’s powers, and many have abandoned the blue pill and black draught to submit themselves to the milder methods of the Healer. This movement among the Natives has only just commenced, and if it continues to spread as rapidly as it has dontsduring the last few months, there is no saying what the end of it will be. That is to say, Uru may waken up some morning to find himself a greater man than Te Wluti or Tawhiao. The character of Uru is well known among the settlers of Wanganui, and there is not a Native in the Island who bears a higher reputation for truthfulness and straightforwardness. He therefore begins his work with everything in his favor, and we need not say that he is entitled to at least as much confidence as the healer who has been, deriving so rich a pecuniary reward for his Heaven-sent virtue in the towns of the colony. Ur u will be heard of far and wide before bis mission is ended.—Yeoman.