TE WHITI.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3196, 26 September 1881, Page 3

TE WHITI.

Dr. Newman, of Wellington, who has lately paid a visit to Parihaka, supplies the following sketch of the great prophet to the New Zealand Times :—" Unlike most Maori orators of the old school, Te Whiti does not walk about, now and then only changing one foot. His voice has greater range than that of most Maoris, is much more under control. His delivery at times is quick and impassioned. He is also a ready debater, with vast powers of sai'casm, invective, and ridicule. No Maori has ever been able to hold his own iii debate -with Te Whiti. One noted old Chief travelled 90 miles to a meeting for the express purpose of putting down this upstart young chief; he sat, listened, and went away without saying a word, merely replying to a question that he felt Te Whiti was too much for him. Others havo tried in former years, but all were easily set down by Te Whiti's wonderful power of ridicule and sarcasm ; and now for years no one has dared to dispute with him ■ they acknowledge him as master; Te Whiti's delivery is very easy. He has been known to talk for eight hours, and not appear hoarse or fatigued. As an orator or debater, he is unrivalled by any of his race—he towers immensely above them. No man can make such speeches unless his mind be well stored with facts. Unlike most Maoris, who look coarse and often dull, Te Whiti has the look of a high thinker and plain liver. Europeans are apt to characterise his speeches as rubbish, mere fanatical jargon; but read between the lines, strip them of the scriptural and other allusions with which they are adorned of set purpose, and the reader will see how sensible, how statesman-like they are. Let the reader put himself in the place of Te Whiti, the ruler, the last hope of his gallant fastdying race—a race defeated, shorn of most of their fair lands, the hallowed burialgrounds o£ their fathers desecrated, and soon to be robbed of all but a miserable remnant ; feeling, too, how hopeless, but for Divine aid, is the struggle with their foes, and he will then see how wise, how admirably fitted are Te Whiti's speeches to attain their object, viz., that of swaying a credulous, superstitious, vanquished race. His language, too, is most classic Maori, for Te Whiti is deeply learned in all the old legends and incantations of his people, and has at his fingers' ends the karakias and religious lore of the old Tohungas. To the aged, by a single couplet from some old charmed rhyme, he can create anew the vigor of their race; and, to the young men, he can utter, with electrifying energy, burning words from the Book of Books which were taught them by the missionaries. Te Whiti is usually a silent man, taciturn, reserved, courteous to all, lavish in hospitality to Europeans, but always thoughtful, always dignified. All his speeches at his great gatherings are especially tinted for the newspaper correspondents, who are usually present at the meetings, but the real plans are discussed in the runanga house at night among the chiefs alone. At the meetings there is no debating. Te Whiti first speaks, then Tohu, who is to him what Rees was to Grey, takes up- the burden of his song, then Te Whiti says a few farewell words and the meeting ends. Te Whiti's speeches -usually abound in sentences which can be read in two ways. He closely resembles the Delphic Oracle in the ambiguity of his sayings, and in this respects is exactly like the tohungas—the priests of his race. Te Whiti is an adroit flatterer of the people if he pleases. The Bible he knows by heart, and exemplifies the old adage about—

' This is the book where each his doctrine seeks, And this is the book where each his doctrine finds'