KING AND PROPHET.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVI, Issue 162, 9 July 1895, Page 5

KING AND PROPHET.

MAHUTA AND TE WHITI.

A feature of importance in connection with native affairs at present is the very friendly attitude taken up by the Waikato natives to Te Whiti, the " prophet of the plains," ab Parihaka. Lately, over a hundred natives from the Lower Waikato, headed by Kerei Kaihau, went down to Parihofca to make a prolouged stay with Te Whiti and bis people, and yesterday several more, from Waiuku, wenb down via the Wesb (Joasb to Taranaki. The Taranaki "Record" publishes a statement) to the effecb thab " nexb September the Waikato natives with the young King Mahuta will assemble at Farihaka, and To Whiti will be made king, the young monarch agreeing to abdicate in favour of the wily prophet." This is nob correct. Mahufca, we are informed, has no intention of " abdicating." We learn, however, thab Mahuta, with a considerable number of Waikato natives, intends paying a visib to Paribaka in September next, when he will fraternise with Te Whiti, and the occasion will be made an excuse for a large Maori gathering ab Pirihaka.

One reason for thepresenb demonstrations of amity between the Lower Waikato and the Taranaki natives, is the decision of Waikato to make a friendly visit to the descendants of their old-time enemies, of the time when hostilities wore carried on by. Waikato againsb Taranaki, by the great chief Te Wherowfaero (afterwards Potatdu I.) and others' Borne sixty years ago. During those sanguinary raids made by Te Wherowhero and Te Waharoa, during the period 1830 35, thousands of the Ngatiawa, Ngatiruanui, Tangahoe and Ngaruahine people were killed and eaten, or else carried into captivity. The enslaved girls intermarried with the Waikato, with the result that very many Waikato people nre of Taranaki deßcenb by their mothers' side. Thus, nearly all of those Waikato natives who are now visiting Te Whiti are *' half-Tara-naki," as they say, and they thus claim relationship with the Taranaki natives. The well-known chief Henare Kaihau's mother was a Taranaki woman. ' The Ngatatipa and kindred natives who have gone to Taranaki lately acquired the funds for their journey by soliing their interestsin the Opuatia Block, through the Government, for the puposes of settlement. Several heads of families received as much as £200 and £300 for their shares of the Opuatia.