FRIDAY, MARCH 19, 1880.

Evening Post, Volume XIX, Issue 64, 19 March 1880, Page 2

FRIDAY, MARCH 19, 1880.

THE PARIHAKA MEETING. ? .

Ik another column will be found an interesting telegram from our Speaial Correspondent in reference to the Parihaka meeting, giving the purport of the speeches delivered by Ts Whjti and Tohu, and also of some private conversations with them and witli-TiTOKO-"wabtt. We also publish a telegram from the special correspondent of the United Press Association, recording the proceedings at the afternoon sitting ; a condensed report from the same Bource of the morning's talk ap-

peared in our last night' %,, issue. If our readers will compare the two accounts it will probably strike them at first that there is considerable discrepancy between the respective versions of the native utterances and of their meaning. We believe that on more careful comparison this apparent discrepancy will to a large extent disappear, or at least will be seen to be wholly a subjective one. Our own correspondent is thoroughly reliable, and is well acquainted with nativeaffairs, and probably a similar compliment might with equal justice be paid to the correspondent of the Association. It must bo remembered, however, that they both necessarily labored under considerable difficulty in reporting the speeches at the Parihaka meeting. For, in the first place, the orators spoke in a foreign tongue, and secondly, they talked in parables. A third and very formidable obstacle was the fact that Te Whiti is professedly an inspired oracle, but really a madman. - Anybody, therefore, desirous of discovering the realjneaningof his deliverances has first to reduce his inspired rhodomontade into plain Maori, then to translate that into literal English, and, thirdly, to give some sort of a comprehensible and common-sense version of the string of parables forming a Maori oration. The-7other native speakers offer only one difficulty fewer, the soi-disant in-spiration-bang omitted ; but still they spoke in a strange tongue, and in parables. It is not at <alr surprising, therefore, in such a case, to find different listeners forming entirely different subjective views as to the real meaning of what they hear, and unconsciously tinging their respective conclusions according to the coloring of their preconceived notions to what probably would take place. It is of course impossible for us at a distance to form an opinion, of any real value as to the relative correctness of the very different eonclusions^arrived- ajiby.the two correspondents. We 'may point out, however, that the report -of our. ownvrepresentative is entirely in accordance with the telegrams which were received by the Government yesterday from' "various trustworthy sources, and-of-'wjbiohwe gave an abstract hist evening. We are inclined to think his ' view is the more accurate one, inasmuch as it explains several' points which otherwise would remain enveloped in a haze of nn- - certainty. For instance, both agree in stating that Te Whiti declared that although the road across the Waimate Plains hod been begun at both ends, the two portions would never meet. This is constrned in one case to mean that he would interpose the arm of flesh to prevent it, and in another that " a supernatural power will intervene to prevent its completion." But it certainly seems to us that the more probable version is that of our own correspondent, according, to whom Te Whiti used those words in a different sense, ridiculing the rood-making as an act of " spite" and bravado on the part of the Government, intended either to frighten the natives into submission or to provoke them to war,- and therefore not at all likely to be carried out to completion if it failed to answer its real object. In order therefore that he might ensure its failure he strictly enjoined his -followers not to be provoked into warlike resistance, and at the same time pledged himself not to submit. This throws quite another light on what otherwise would be a decidedly menacing speech ; and although we do not pretend to assert authoritatively that our interpretation is the correct one, it certainly seems more consistent with the oft-reiterated declaration of Te Whiti— repeated with even enhanced force and clearness on this occasion-^-that there is to be no more "trouble" (war) or "spilling of water" (bloodshed), — than the other. Te Whiti's claim to the practical sovereignty of the Taranaki lands is no new one, but was enunciated last year with equal firmness and distinctness. We cannot, therefore, discover anything really new or special in the Parihaka speeches, excepting the following words reported to have been uttered by Te Whiti, in conclusion of his last speech :—": — " I leave it now in the hands of Tohu, and the Government to Bay who is right and who is wrong." The" Association correspondent adds a note to his telegram as follows: — ''The surrender of the question to Tohu is significant for war ; Tohu is looked upon as the man of action, and interference with the road parties is now expected." That, „of course, ia merely an expression of personal opinion, and against it may be placed as a counterbalance the opinions gleaned by our own correspondent from others. Time alone can show which view is the more accurate. Possibly the " wish is father to the thought," but cer- j tainly the impression we have derived from a- careful perusal of all the telegraphic reports is the more favorable one, that they point to peace and not to war. It is needless to add how earnestly we hope that this may prove to be the true interpretation of the Maori riddle. Nor do we think that hope at all a vain one, judging even from the unfavorable versions of Tb Whiti's and Tohu's speeches. The great danger consists now, as from the first, in the -insidious machinations of the pafeeha-Maori land-sharks, whojhave carefully instilled into the natrWnuna^tHe idea that the Government wish to fight, and are trying to provoke the Maoris into aimed resistance in order ,to have a better "case" a£&lnstthem._for enforcing Confiscation. * He is thlSvgiqiposecr snare that -Tb Whiti is evidently so anxious to avoid, and hence his earnest adjurations to his followers to keep the peace. Indeed, but for the shrewd " method in his madness" which leads him to hit on the most effective means of preventing war, by representing it as affording a handle to the Europeans against the Maoris, and by promising that the hitter, if they abstain from violence, shall be rewarded with all they desire, it. is only too probable that some of the more excitable natives would ere this have' taken- up the gauntlet apparently thrown down to them, and would have endeavored promptly to settle the question by an appeal to arms. We still indulge the hope that Te Whiti's influence will continue to be used for the preservation of peace, and that the gloomy forebodings of some people will prove to be without any real foundation.