THE NOXIOUS "TCHUNGA."

Evening Post, Volume LXXIV, Issue 19, 22 July 1907, Page 6

THE NOXIOUS "TCHUNGA."

« Tho Tohunga Suppression Bill of tho Native Minister — a measure -designed \a copo with tho impostors of the nativs raco who p.etend to excrete nngic arta — meets an acknowledged nesd. Tho many difficulties thnt heset the problem have deterred various Administration? from taking it in hand; and at ono timo thc«:e difficulties were undoubtedly insuperable. Even now, as is admitted on e]l sides, tho greatest cave will have to be exercised in legislating and the utmost tact in carrying the provisions of the law into effect. In the days of, tho Maori troublex, it was the tohungrs who wero the chief agents in ttiiring up strife By various thaumalurgie arts, tlioy^ impressed a. cicduloas people i\ iuli the idea that they possessed supeinatuitil powers and more tlutn human knowledge; they prophesied the annihilation of the white man, and, as in the caro oi Fnnppo-, at Omarunui, excited the reckless fanaticism of their dupes by promising that they should bo invulnerable in fight._ Ponapa may havo been as mad as his followers — ho ceitainly did not shrink from exposing himself, as the eleven bullet wounds, in his body sufficiently testified. This was more than a generation n"go; but the later calls of Tohu end Te Whiti, and the disorder, almost resulting in open outbreak, caused by Uu,i during the past twelve months, show that tho ignorant impostor of our own day — poor travesty ns he is of the learned priest of tho olden days — is yet. a powei.^and a pov/tr for mi=chifif—An tlift lniid. A gratifying feature- in Friday's debate wtis the intelligent grnsp of the situation by tho Maori memboi'G, and the judgment displayed in their comments. It was not only the torcerer who professes to cast a spell on those obnoxious to him. and not infrequently compngies their death by sheer fear, nor the "healing" tohunga, whoso supposorl banpficont operations are ovc-n more deadly than the other's black magic. There is the "political tohunga" — tho man who, in his opposition to necessary legislation for tho protection of the remaining native territory, and of even more pressing sanitary reforms, pretends to the gift of prophecy, and to be the mouthpiece of the offended gods of old. Such a man is Ilua, and the largo and turbulent following that ho has secnved fliow* how deeply-rooted end how poteuT alii) arc tliu old-time superstitions, It is just on this point that the- difficulty ot tho legislator lies. How h ho to attack rtnti-aocial and immoral superstition effectively without av.Mker.ir.q hostility :n ihf supposed interests of religion? — otherwise, religion itself, which holds that oidei » hoavon's first law, from its opposite extreme, which debasos the community, and would subvert law and .order alike? The problem exists not only in lands like our own, where n rur-'- has not wholly emerged from something closely resembling devil-worship, but in the midstof the most advanced civilisation. In London itself, tho police have had ropoatedly to interfero with the fanatic Agapqmonites," whoso leader died lately, and whose rites were conducted in a state of nudity; and charges of mtmslauglit.or are xrom timo tv time laid against men and women who hold, as Dowio taught, that it is unlawful to administer either medical or surgical aid to the sick. In the United States, "froak" sects, practising scandalous rites, are common phenomena. And to make the parallel complete, magic and divination are more or less covertly practised from tho lowest to the highest circles of society, Mr. Heke spoke only the truth — a truth known to every Maori in the land— when he said ; "^any

people forget thut there are such things »s pakeha tohungas." .uuch a« the antiiohunga Jaw was needed, wo are glad that thf> New Zealand Government has begun with our own tohungas-, and legis lated against, the most infamous- class of quacks and bloodsuckers beforo it has taken the less mischievoxis native impostors in hand. Much yet remains to be ' done, and all can not be done at once, but a good beginning has been made; and at any rate there is little room for the reproach that there is in this matter one law for the white man and another for the Maori.