TOWN EDITION. Evening Post. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1881. THE SPEECHES OF TE WHITI AND TOHU.

Evening Post, Volume XXII, Issue 93, 18 October 1881, Page 2

TOWN EDITION. Evening Post. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1881. THE SPEECHES OF TE WHITI AND TOHU.

Te Whiti has spoken. Tohu has spolren. Their utterances have been taken down verbatim, and have been interpreted with as much care as if they were the most precious gems of wisdom ever dropped from the lips of inspiration. Many thousands of people will peruse to-day with eager interest the reports of those mystic orations. Their supposed gist will probably be telegraphed to all parts of the civilised world. We sincerely trust that those thousands of people and the whole civili-ed world will bo wiser and better for the perusal. "We candidly confess that we have derived little, if any, spiritual benefit from the lask of wading through the turbid torrent of dre.\ry drivelling, largely interspersed with rank blasphemy, with which Te Whiti drenohes and saturates his unhappy followers, lint it is not difficult to extract some clear meaning from all this tedious twaddle. In another column will be found a very careful report of Te Whiti's remarks collat?d from the independent records of throe expert interpreters. A great deal of irrelnvant and blasphemous rubbish has been expm.god, and the residuum stands out with tolerable distictness, as fairly comprehonsible. Its pnrport is just what was expected. The natives are not to be impatient or tru3t to carnal weapons. The Constabulary may throng to Parihaka, and European settlers may cover the land, but when the proper time comes they will all be Bwept away by the breath of Te Whiti's nostrils. Pungarehu is to fall like the walls of Jericho when Te Whiti gives the word. " The earth will shake and the mountain be removed, but my people shall be protected " This is really interesting. Can l B Whiti keep a private earthquake somewhere at hand, ready to turn on at the proper time? We can hardly think it possiblo. And then the removal of Mouut iigmont— *' the mountain "—evidently so as to crush the Europeans without hurting the Maoris, seems quite a formidable undertaking for people co little skilled in engineering. It is earnestly to be hoped 1 c Whiti will make no mistake in moving Mount Egmont. He must take great care not to let it drop upon his own toes. Then again, the strong people are to "vanish awuy like sunshine," and the " small people " are to triumph. Money and powder, and guns and numbers and fortifications are to prove impotent against the supernatural power of Te Whiti. And so forth. It ia the old, old story Te Whiti with his maunderings is becoming as trite and tiresome as sir Georgs Gkey with his about the "serfs and gridiron?." But at least this much is evident, tuat he is anxious to explain away his September utterance, by showing that they wero to be understood in a purely mystic and non-naturat sense. iNo doubt than September speech was what is vulgarly called a ''try on." It has not proved a success, and so Is Whiti falls back on the old promises of supernatural aid, conditionally on his followers "' continuing as before," patiently reliant upon his wisdom, imagination, and power. They are not to rdy on the aim of flesh, but upon his protecting wisdom. That, of course, is all

very wel], so far as it goes, and bears out our view that his policy would prove to be not " war," but " worry." Still it does not in any way alter the question, or relieve the Government of the duty to provide for all contingencies, to take such steps that the peac3 of the Colony shall no longer be dependent on Te "W'hiti's fiat, and to secure the permanent settlement alike of the Pdrihaka country and the Parihaka difficulty. We are glad to know that this is fully recognised by the Government, and that there is a fixed determination tp make an end at all costs of this long-standing annoyance, which is not only an impediment to settlement and progress, but alao a continual menace to our financial credit.