Ministers and Parihaka.

Evening Post, Volume XLIX, Issue 115, 16 May 1895, Page 3

Ministers and Parihaka.

♦ During the course of his meeting at Eltham on Tuesday evening, Mr. Hutchison referred to Ministerial visits to Parihaka, and said that after the repent visit of tbe Minister of Labour and his interview with Te Whiti it was represented that it was an excellent stroke of policy. Now, it was said that the visit was to be followed op by one from the Premier himself, who was to visit Parihaka and converse with Te Whiti. He (Mr. Hntohison) was assured that the visit of the -Minister of Labour te Parihaka had been used by Te Whiti and his followers as an evidence of a desire on the part of the Government of the Queen to recognise the independence of Te Wbiti. There was, he was assured, a proverb ourrent among the Maoris at Parihaka that a weak man goet from home, but a strong man has men brought to him, and thiß was how Te Whiti and his people had riewed the visit of the Minister of Labour and wou'd view the visit of the Premier. He therefore thought it would be most impolitic for the Premier of the oolony to go to Parihaka Te WhitL, did not recognise the Queen's authority, had taken it upon himself to alter the calendar, and prevented his followers from paying attention to the mandates of the courts of the colony nntil compelled by force. For a Minister of the Crown to do what appeared to be paying court to Te Whiti at Parihaka was a great mistake. If Te Whiti ha_ any grievance let him go to the Ministers at Wellington. He took the earliest opportunity of protesting in the name of the honour of New Zealand aeainst this Ministerial " kootooing" to Te Whiti at Parihaka. He believed that during the visit of the Minister of I abour the natives were laughins np their sleeves, and that it had since been quoted as an instance of the power of Te Whiti that a Minister of the ' Crown shonld wait on him. — Hawera Stir.