The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, APRIL 29, 1901. THE TOHUNGA CASE.

Gisborne Times, Volume V, Issue 93, 29 April 1901, Page 2

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, APRIL 29, 1901. THE TOHUNGA CASE.

The fact that an old woman of the Maori race has been sentenced to a year’s imprisonment is not pleasing to contemplate, but there is no doubt that it was richly deserved in the “tohunga” case concluded at the Supreme Court on Saturday. That the death of the fever patient was accelerated by the barbarous treatment there can be no doubt. But the loss of a life through unskilful treatment is by no means the worst part of the affair. The main trouble is that the whole district is in a great degree subject to the sway of the “ tohunga,” and intend of its being stamped out it seems to be growing ; or rather that has been so up to the present. The result of Saturday’s case may serve as a very strong check. It s therefore pleasing to know that one individual has been made an example of. The warning will be heeded for a short time, but it is to be hoped that it will be sufficiently effective, if not to wholly stamp out the tohungas, at least in a large manner arresting their baneful influence ; the latter have been able to obtain the confidence of many highly-educated natives, as well as of the more ignorant classes. The sentence passed on Saturday was a well-doserved one.