THE PARIHAKA BLOT.

Evening Post, Volume LVII, Issue 155, 3 July 1899, Page 4

THE PARIHAKA BLOT.

♦ The Diocesan Synod laat week discussed, among other eubjeots, the demoralisation of the West Coast natives under the evil influence of their prophets, To Whiti and Tohu, Some of the speakers gave distressing pictures of the drunkenness, immorality, and superstition rifo in the Porihoka district, and it in evident that an effort sliould be, made to break down the abuses that have grown up around this sacred place of the Maori. The Wesleyans did good work there before the war, but since that timo To Whiti and Tohu have strengthened their hold not only upon the Parihaka nativo*, but unfortunately also upon those from neighbouring places. Parihaku has become a holy place, to whioh the Wont Coast Maoris send tribute that is lavished by Te Whiti upon largo houses, roads, water supplies, and other works in his own immediate vicinity. Those deluded devotees also supply funds for the huge feasts held in the Parihaku houses, feasts to which the natives of various tribes flock in great numbers, and which only too often degenerate, into disgusting orgies. Over all this country from -Waitobara. to White, Cliffs, the native land is held under Crown grants. These grnntq |onn tb,e basifl of the distribution of the rente received by the Public Trustee under the West Coast Settlement Reserves Act. The Parihaka natives have their own grants, but in addition they practically levy through the agency of Te Whiti and Tohu religious blackmail from their kinsmen of Hawera and the Waunate Plains. All that this zeal results in is the enrichment of the Parihaka tribes at the expense of their credulous neighbours, who spend at the Maori Mecca money that they, ought to devote to the payment of debts and cho improvement of their holdings in the districts they reside in. The reality of the power wielded by the two prophetic potentates is obvious Irom events that have^uite recently occurred in that part of the colony. When the Premier was in' the North some of the followers of Te Whiti and Tohu met him at Pareroa, near Patea, and, with misgivings it is said, invited him to Parihaka, On the 17th of laat month a large meeting was held at Parihaka to celebrate the anniversary I*'1 *' of tho ploughing operations on Messrs. Livingston and Finlayson's farms in 1879, and the chiefs who had dared to hold kiich an interview with the Premier were roundly consured by the irate prophets. Ou their return from Parihaka the Waimate ohiofs who had been thus banned before the congregation summoned a largo meeting of their tribesmen, and promised that, as an atonement, they would suffer a year's self-banishment from tho prophets' abode. The Hawera Star m a recent article has described the evil effects of the Parihakit pilgrimages upon the natives around, ana olio the harm

dono to tribfsimen of that and other districts. "Tlkj natives," it says, "who have NUpplioJ the money to build Hie houses on somebody else's land then proceed to fill tho larders of these houses with food of all kinds, and as they pay their monthly visits they also pay meal by meal for the lood they huve provided. And on those visits their lives are not guided by any scheme of morality. Tho press has published numerous eusies of ely grog-selling, billiardtables are in full swing, and a. murder has taken place from the jealousy of an injured Jiusband." The two Parihaka prophets, appear to have availed themselves of grievances, real or fancied, felt by the natives, aud to havo used them as well as the natural superstition of tho tribesmen to build up a dangerous and demoralising u-sceudency. Tho Government «hould endeavour promptly to redress any real grievances if such exist, and ■ fro destroy as far as possible the supremacy of To Whiti and Tohu. Wo have wrested those fair islands from the Maorfi, and it is our bounden duty to help him in return along the road to civilisation and comfort.