EXIT PARIHAKA. DEVOTION TO AN IDEA.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIV, Issue 128, 26 November 1907, Page 3

EXIT PARIHAKA. DEVOTION TO AN IDEA.

SIMPLE v. COMPOUND LIFE. VICTORY FOR THE COMPLEX. Once upon a» time . a man, with a little army of myrmidons, pushed his way through " tho green bush that clothed the feet of Taranaki's great white-mitred* mountain. He was a great one jof his -race, the people who found a passage over the uncharted waters of the South Pacific. He saw a huge rata tree on a little hill which he called i.Miti, and there he built a dwelling : place. Ho had an idea. The stranger pas in tho land, with alien ways. He would keep his people apart, and they 'would work out their own salvation, in their own way, in peace. The rata tree has fallen, the whare has been demolished," the idea is dead, and in a little grave on Miti is the idealist; Te Whiti. He was the chief who tried to stay the- hour-hand of the clock. Ho gripped it, and it cut through his fingers, and moved on.- Year after year he sat at Parihakar nursing his injured hands, and the clock mo% T ed on, and he, still cherishing his idea, became just a speck in the distance. A CONSERVATIVE PROGRESSIVE. All the old glory and glamour have gone from the pa. Te Whiti had visions of a kingdom of the "Maori, a realm where they would have houses after the pattern set by their ancestors, and was doomed to sea the day when he would, live in a mansion of pakeha form, and sec pakeha structures all , around him. Parihaka became merely tc second-rate European village. The j most conservative of the Maoris became ] a progressive in spite of himself, and his onco faithful ally Tohu, just as keen in his reactionary tendencies, was obliged to let some of the customs of Britain creep into his dominion. When the two leaders quarrelled over 1 the disposition of the fund which was to be used on the day when the Maoris would come into their own again, Te Whiti said to Tohu : "You may go your waj r ; I shall go mine. Henceforth the white feather, raukura,- shall- bo my eymbol, my sign of peace." Tohu adopted the black feather. "Black and white cannot be joined," was Te Whiti's creed, and, therefore, he, and his people decided to live apart from Tohu and his adherents. Tohu built to the right, facing tho rising sun; Te Whiti to the left. They had separate entrances to Parihaka, and did not speak to each other any more. THE PA. Rivals as prophets, they became rivals in all other things. Thus the old wharcs passed away, and new cottages, in British style, took their place. They I vied with each other in giving a water supply by pipes and taps, and made some attempt at drainage. Thus it happened, that the competition of two lovers of the ancient order gave Parihaka a modern appearance— scarcely re- j sembling in any way a pa' of former j days. _ /, , The most commanding site is occupied/ by tho house of Taare Waitara, To Whiti's son-in-law and "successor. It is a structure .known as a ''modern residence," large, single-storied, cosily nestled among greenery. Below is Te" Whiti's house, ■ also in one story, 'a place of many rooms, 1 a queer conglomeration of kitchens. In the front is the large runanga, or meeting-room, with the 'floor covered with flax mats on which the chief and his principal henchmen squatted in conference. Ho would have no such modern contraption as a chair in this apartment, but iat the back he had a kitchen with a huge European range. The walls of the j dining-rooms, are, mostly adorned with pictures of the holy order, presenting scones and persons of the Old and New j Testaments. The verandah commands Miti, and a , large marao or courtyard, i wiih Te Whitians to the right and To- | huans to tho left. Down the slope, 'at the entrances to the village, is a hillock, Fort Roberts, which was occupied by the British in 1881. In between this point • and Waitara's habitation, tho houses straggle in all directions. They look as if they had fallen higgledy-piggledy-over tho tailboard of a gigantic cart.» There has been some attempt at order, just sufficient to set a conspicuous' seal on tho disorder. Whares, of tho old . kind, dotted* about that way would not pain the eyes, but the modern things do Jook pitiful in their confusion. Each seems ashamed of ' itself," and each seems to be, trying to hide behind its neighbour and succeed^ ing indifferently in vhe effort. A Maori pa in this guise cuts a figure as sorry as Apollo would make in a dress suit two or three sizes too big, for hini. Thoro is one old whare, away from the common eye. It is at the. back of Waitara's house, and there, the apostles of the pjrophcfc .were wont to meet onco a month, and may continue to meet. There the old men could feel for a while that they were 'awny from pakeha institutions, and could brood and dream in pearp. '1 hough the houses arc pakeha in form to the outwaid eye, they are Maori in- ! side. They are mostly empty. Tho natives generally do not burden themselves with chairs and tables or beds. I They find the floor more cornmodioub. " The fowls and the pigs and 'the dogs have tho freedom of the city. They wander about between the houses and amuse the children. THE SIMPLE LIFE. Here the natives lad the simple life. In the summer many of them toiled fur t'hoipakrha, deposited tbeir cheques with Te Whiti, .and in return they got free board and lodging for the winter. It was a comfortable lite from their point of view. They had clothing, they had iood. "Why should they strive for things which thoy did not need?"' they asked themselves. They were nappy; their wants were few and easily satisfied. "What was the uso of going to and fro on tho earth, worrying about trifles?" they said to themselves. If a man arrived on Lambton-quay on Saturday night after a day in restful Parehaka, he would think for a moment that tho people were mad. "Why are they rushing about so excitedly?" ho might think to himself. "Why are they so frenzied? What a dreadful uproar about nothing." "THE PAGE IS CLOSED." When Waitara, with a few simple words, committed To Whiti to the ground on Friday, some Europeans said; "This is a tamo affnir." They did not realise, ihat tho tangi was fully opening a new chapter of history. "The day. of the Maori has passed away ; the page is closed," r.aid one of the orators on Friday. "Everything has been in vain. A pitiless wind has swept through this garden, and the noblest tree is withered. Both monaivhs of the forest have fallen. ' The old doctrine was dead. "Black and white cannot mix,'* said To Whiti. "Black and white will be fused." says Dr. Pqmare, and an analysis of his theory shows that it is just the same as Tc Whiti's. The old chief thought that it was possible to establish v settlement in which the Maori could live in his own way, but some pakehd, ideas intruded. Dr. Pomare lealiscs Uwt it is" impossible to establish n. condition of things in which it will be. possible for tho Maori to bo thoroughly Maori, and ihereiore he

teaches that the Maori is doomed unless he beconies wholly pakeha, on the good model, in his life. The black and white cannot mix. Therefore it is said that sentence of death is upon Parihaka, and that tho natives will soon drift away. An idea which a chief nourished for more than forty years has died from senile decay. _____ ——«___.