The Tohunga

New Zealand Tablet, 20 September 1906, Page 22

The Tohunga

The Maori* tohunga" has fallen-, far from his old place in war and peace ana in the - councils of * the tribesmen of Ao-tea-roa, the Land of ifte Long White Cloud. He is now .little more than a . combination of the sorcerer and " witch-doctor— a sort of quack with occult powers. And in many pas the simple-minded tribesmen believe in him with the same simple, and childlike faith that the ' superior.' white man- manifests towards the quack ' cancer-cur er ', ' specialist ', 1 hypnotic healer ', ~and ' astro-mathematician '. '.Fatalism ', says Dr. Pomare, Native Health Officer, in -his just-published report," • hangs over the - (Maori) race like a "funeral pall. . . It is the fatalistic idea that drives the Maori to his tohunga,., for all whioh-noannot be accounted for are considered mate Maoris^ and no one can cure .a mate Maori except a tohunga. It is pleasing to report that some * councils have blankly refused to grant tohungas licenses, and yet in one district nearly all the members of the council are followers of a tohunga> It is hard to know what to do without interfering with the liberty of the subject too much. Of course, as long as we allow crystal gazing, fortune-telling, spiritual mediums, and a host of other quackeries to thrive in our midst we cannot very well see clearly to take out the mote in our brother's eyes ; but, nevertheless, we cannot help recognising the greatness of the evil o£ tohungaism, and that it must be grappled with at once. The only solution of the problem that I can see, and this -has been pointed out years ago, is the compulsory registration of every death. The fear of gaol and a few post mortems will bring them into line quicker than anything I know.'