The Freethought Reviews. WANGANUI, N.Z.: AUGUST 1, 1884. THE GROWTH OF A CREED.

Freethought Review, Volume I, Issue 11, 1 August 1884, Page 9

The Freethought Reviews. WANGANUI, N.Z.: AUGUST 1, 1884. THE GROWTH OF A CREED.

My name is Tangata Tito, and I live in Poverty Bay. I am getting to be an old man now, so I have seen many changes since the days of my youth. The greatest change of all was the arrival of the Pakeha with his new ways and his new religion. I was a young man then, and to the young any change is delightful, so I rejoice! greatly when I saw the wonderful things of the white man, his guns, his tools of iron, his women’s dresses of many shapes and colors, and heard his stories of strange lands, and above all of his Gods, whose ways he knew all about, while of our own we knew little, for they dwell in a mist, and no one seemed to know exactly how they would act on any occasion, being indeed much like our great chiefs, easily provoked and ready to do a man an injury or a kindness just as it might suit their temper at the moment. The Priests indeed claimed to have great influence over them, but we could not always trust the Priests. They often had their own ends to serve, and also frequently made mistakes, saying the wrong words in an incantation, or making some mistake in the performance of a ceremony, than which nothing could more offend the invisible powers. So on the whole we Maoris felt little interest in the unseen world, more especially as we believed that only some men lived long after they were dead, and that even these, our wisest men and boldest warriors, when they became spirits gradually faded away and died the second death at last, as was evident from their ceasing to appear in dreams and visions. But the Pakeha Gods (whom we at first thought to be four, namely the Father, the Son, the Holy Ghost, and the Devil, but who we found afterwards was one, or three in one, like three spears tied together— never could quite make it out) or God, was quite a different being. He was, his missionary Priests told us, enormously powerful and so good that no punishment was too great for the least offence committed against him. Then they told us the story of Adam eating the apple, and the way in which nearly all the people in the world had been drowned in a great flood, and how Moses worked miracles, and finally how Jesus was born and went about performing lesser miracles than Moses did, but still wonderful enough of their kind, and how at last he was cruelly put to death in spite of all his power and goodness, and rose again and ascended into heaven, where any man who believes all this and does no work on a Sunday, is sure to join him and live for ever, while the man who does not believe this and goes out fishing on a Sunday, will indeed live for ever and ever but in a place of torment called Hell. All this the missionaries said had been written by their God in a book. Clearly they believed this, and most of the missionaries were good and earnest men, evidently men of truth, who had come thousands of miles to tell us this good

news. There was their book, the Bible, in proof of it. All the Pakehas we met believed in it. We saw too that the Pakeha God had given them much more than our Gods had given to us, and besides those who accepted the teaching of the missionaries were favoured by them and had many advantages over the “ Devil ” natives, as the missionaries called those Maories who remained heathen and refused to put away their wives and worked or amused themselves on a Sunday. Hence nearly all the younger men and women resolved to become Christians. For me it was easy enough ; 1 had no wife, I liked to hear the singing and preaching on Sundays, and I found it easy to believe all that I found in the Bible. We have to take many things on trust, and this was only one thing more. When I was baptised I felt myself safe. The Devil could have no claim to me, for any such claim had been satisfied by the death of the son of God. It was pleasant to think that I should live for ever as well as the richest missionary lived on earth. Besides this we all saw that the Christian teaching as to right and wrong was good and in some respects better than our own. Our custom was to kill and eat our enemies, and that led to their killing and eating us, which was not so pleasant, and evidently injured the tribe; and so as to stealing, and many other things. The law of Tapu too was hard to bear and Christianity did away with much of it. There was much talk about sin, but repentance was easy and faith was all the new Priests really cared much about, and we had plenty of that, for our knowledge was small and one thing seemed as likely as another to be true. Why not, for many strange things happened in old times, and in places we knew not of; still stranger things may have happened, and the Pakehas had no interest in telling us lies, for we knew them to be friends not enemies. So as I say, nearly all of us were Christians and took much more interest in the new religion than we had done in our old one, at which indeed many of us laughed, as did' the Pakeha, Time went on and as I grew older I began to perceive that the new faith had its drawbacks. It taught that all men were equal, and so gradually the common people took no heed to the words of cheir chiefs. Slaves refused to work, and when some were killed, the missionaries denounced the chiefs who had punished them, as murderers. The people agreed with the missionaries, and said one man was as good as another, for were we not all .brethren in Christ? This looked right and just, but it led to much confusion. Each man paddled the canoe a different way, and so it drifted. To me, as a chief of many ancestors, it was painful to see the influence of the chiefs slipping away from them in this manner. A well-born man used to be looked up to and if he proved himself fit to lead in council or in war the tribe gladly followed him. Now they said what right has he to lead more than us ? Then mean-minded men went about telling tales, and set one family against another and so got power for themselves, and in this the missionaries often assisted, they being easily imposed upon by men of this sort. Crooked back is first through the hut door,” says the proverb, and so it was that these sneaking fellows always got into any place they wanted. They were made catechists and agents and represented the tribe in its dealings with the Pakeha. Greatly owing to these men it was that our lands passed into the hands of the Pakeha. They took bribes.right and left and persuaded the people to sell their lands for a few pence per acre. For this Ido not much blame the Pakeha. He gave the price agreed on and it was low because these agents sold one against the other. The ignorance of the native was no match for the knowledge of the white man. Now I began to see that our old men were not such fools as I had thought them when they warned us against the new religion. It had destroyed the power of the chiefs and leaders of the people and left us in the hands of many fools led by a few rogues. Therefore again I rejoiced greatly when the King movement began, for in this I saw a way of salvation for my race. We the chiefs of New Zealand would no longer permit ignorant and dishonest men to ruin their tribe by the sale of land which we now knew could be made a source of wealth and power. This led to the war that began at Waitara, where the Pakeha was wrong even according to his own law, but had he been right war would have come at last. I and my people fought against the Pakeha and I felt I was really a chief again. Then Te Ua announced a new religion. It was in some

respects a revival of our old faith. To me it appeared possible that misfortune had fallen upon us because we had deserted our old Gods. Clearly they were helping us now

for they made men at Taranaki bullet proof, as we heard, and I saw with my own eyes one of our Hau Hau Priests cause the wreck of an English steamer by his incantations. At Wellington too many prisoners were assisted by the Hau Hau God to escape from the hulk there and guided to a place of safety, through swimming a long distance in a dark and stormy night. It was like Peter walking on the water, indeed so great was the faith of these men that even Bishop Hadfield admired them as good though mistaken people, for doing which he was blamed by Sir William Fox in his book on the " War in New Zealand," he not seeing that in respect of faith the Hau Haus were as sincere as himself. He judged the Hau Haus as the publicans judge him. So hard it is for men holding extremely different opinions to be just to one another. This held good with Maori and Pakeha in their struggle for supremacy. Each side fought for what it thought to be right, and hated the other for doing the same thing. The war lasted for a long time, now dying away and now blazing up, like one of our forests on fire, as the night wind rises and falls. Our old feuds kept us from uniting and many tribes fought on the side of the Europeans, not because they loved the Pakeha but because they hated each other. There were exceptions, and some Maoris were really what you Pakehas call " loyal." As a rule it was otherwise, and many fought only for pay and were treacherous to both sides, when they could be so with safety to their skins. In the end we were beaten and' much of our land taken from us as payment for wrong done. This was right and in accordance with our own customs. Had the Pakeha occupied this land we should have been content. As it was he made maps of it and wrote, saying, " this is ours, let no Maori trespass upon this confiscated land." Could anything be more ridiculous? It is no disgrace to a brave man not to seek to occupy land held by another brave man— a strong man armed keeps the house his goods are in peace —but only cowards would be kept off land, once their own, by bits of paper and a few words printed in the Gazette. So gradually the tribes who had been driven out returned, and by planting and keeping cattle on the land, made it again their own. Then suddenly the Pakeha woke up and said, behold the land we took in war is going from us, let us take it again by surveying and marking it, as a wild pig is marked in the ear. This they did, and the tribes living under the shadow of Mount Taranaki considered this a great wrong and insult. I heard of these things and wondered what would occur. Then Te Whiti a new prophet arose and proclaimed himself the saviour of his people, and many believed in him, just as the Jews in the time of Jesus believed in Christ. By his power which must have been given him from on high, he preserved psace and yet forced the Pakehas to give his people their land again. From time to time, we, who lived in Poverty Bay and at other distant places, heard of the wonderful works Te Whiti performed at Parihaka, in proof of his divine mission. How he raised the dead, and healed all manner of diseases, and how he prophesied that like Christ he would be taken prisoner and Tohu with him, these two going into bondage like the Israelites, which prophecy was fulfilled to the letter. It is true the Pakehas ridiculed Te Whiti's pretensions and denied that he had raised the dead, but is it likely that hundreds of men and women living on the spot who testified to these things should lie or be deceived 1 Many of my friends I know went to Parihaka, taking with them clothes for the dead when they arose. Of what use would this have been if the dead had not arisen 1 Then too, thousands of pounds in notes and gold were sent to Te Whiti; would people have stmt their money to an impostor? Even the Pakehas admit that Te Whiti is a good man, and yet when on one occasion some one asked "who is behind you," Te Whiti answered in a voice of thunder "no one is behind me, I am the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost;" could a good man say this if in some sense it were not true 1 ? To me it is evident that Te Whiti is the Christ of the Maori race. First came Moses, then Christ, and then Te Whiti, each doing good to his people, and each working miracles. Faith is belief on testimony, and we ought not to doubt what good men tell us is true. Was not St. Thomas reproved for only trusting to the evidence of his senses, and told " blessed arc they who have not seen and yet have believed." So I exercise faith and believe in Te Whiti as he commands, as do all who have come under his influence. Truly he is the only hope of our race, the one great leader who has guided us into the path

of peace and yet made us feel that we are, and shall be, greater than our Pakeha oppressors. Some Europeans have asKed me why I do not go to Parihaka and converse with the dead who have been restored to life by the power of Te Whiti. To this I reply I have other work to do in the great cause of the Maori, and that I am satisfied to believe what lam told by men of truth. Bid not Paul believe in the resurrection of Christ without going to Jerusalem to collect evidence, and was not his faith rewarded by seeing him in a vision 1 I also have had similar visions, and the dead have told me to believe in Te Whiti. As time goes on many things will be revealed about miracles performed in our time by Te Whiti and his followers, which are little known at present. The Epistles which were written a few years after the death of Jesus tell us very little as to miracles, but during the next hundred years many thousands were brought to light. These weie recorded in writings which were read in all the Churches who at last agreed to winch were read in all the Churches who at last agreed to accept only the four gospels as true history. For holding to these four gospels the Fathers of the second century gave many excellent reasons, such as that as there were four chief winds so there should be four gospels, and so will similar wise reasons be given for any histories that may exist a hundred years hence about Te Whiti. For my own part I am in some respects a Christian, but also believe in Te Whiti, just as Paul was a Jew ■ who believed in Christ. Moses, Christ, and Te Whiti, are one, like the Trinity. My wish is to reconcile all these religions, for each people should have its own. There is good in each, but I judge the tree by its fruits, and to the Maori no fruit has been so sweet as that of the great tree grown at Parihaka. R. P.