Te Whiti and his followers.

Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3486, 26 February 1880, Page 2

Te Whiti and his followers.

The special correspondent of the Star writing of the late meeting at Parihaka gives the fallowing sketch of Te. Whiti :—

He is a middle sized man with a high forehead seamed with deep lines, the relics of many thoughtful days and nights, with hair and whiskers thickly interspersed with gray, eyes small and piercing, and with that peculiar bright and atari ike appearance, which distinguishes those of earnest and intellectual men, but which has flso the effect of impressing one with the idea that the mind of which they are the windows is tottering on the brink of insanity. The face when first seen bears a striking resemblance to the portrait of Charles Dickens in the shilling edition of his life. That, however, is only when the face is in repose, for when excited with his subject, To Whiti's facial muscles indicate with wonderful quickness the various emotions which are agitating his mind, and his smile when pleased is as winning as his whole appearance is forbidding when rage and passion hold strong minion over his soul. doHis attitude when speaking commands attention, and his action in delivery is forcible and emphatic when the subject requires it, whilst his voice is pitched so as to reach every ear of the many listener! in front of him. His position is on a platform raised a few feet above the majority of his audience, and he is surrounded as he speaks by his more par* ticular friends, and the chiefs of his ptople, who form hit Privy Council. All

are sitting, and with such attention is he listened to, that not a sound disturbs the silence of his periods, save the rippling of the brook, which flows through Tarihaka on its way from Taranaki to the eea.

THE SPEECH. He commenced his harangue by saying that owing to being so near to the great meeting of the year, the " Ides of March," he had very little to say to them, but he assured them that all his works and sayings which had seen the light should never be banished into oblivion. He said that though the great men of the island might strife to turn aside and avoid the problems which he bad brought forward for solution, they must fail in their attempt, as all things would be brought to him before they were explained, for all were in the hands of the Lord of the world. He affirmed that all attempts to bring on a war were utterly futile, and it would be equally useless to attempt to conclude any survey or adjudicate on any land No matter who might try, and whatever works were commeucsd, the Lord of the world was at the end, who had abolished war, and would complete the good work in the evening. The Governmentj!»ere^Jirying_ r t°--JS9ikct-^t(sgeiKer' the chaff, but the I wheat was all bagged at Parihaka.