PARIHAKA MEETING.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume I, Issue 72, 18 December 1880, Page 2

PARIHAKA MEETING.

[Specially Telegraphed to Star.]

(FEOai OTJB OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

Pungarehtj, Yesterday.

The Parihaka meeting was larg ly attended, although perhaps not quite so many as at the half-yearly meetings. No allusion was made to the murderer, Tuhiata. At 9 o'clock, the food was placed on the marae, and aft r an hour and a quarter having been spent on its division and partial consumption, the socalled prisoners, that is those who have been confcinu&llj' afc the fences^ mea and women, marched on to the marae in single file, and when they had taken their seats, Te Whiti commenced speaking. He exhorted his people to continue doing exactly as they had been ; . ta resist all provocation to a breach of the peac«, that all might see whose work was good, and whose was' bad; he characterised the works of thfi Government as eminently bad, but bade them to be long suffering. If any persons of the two races inhabiting the island wished to judge which is right, and which is wrong, let them come to Panhaka, and see und hear for themselves. "Let your behaviour be as of old, and look quietly on the evil which is being done you; the land courts being held are all bad, and so. are all things given to this geueration of Maoris." The speech of Te Whiti lasted an hour ; and so also clici that of Tohu ; after which Te Whiti again spoke for a few minutes. Tohu said that what Te Whiti had said was correct ; that there were only two things to be said : the first was that they must continue in their present behaviour; and tfce other, that if any wished to judge of the conduct of the two nations, let ih btq come to and see ; Zie said that whilst they were keeping quiet, they were not lazy, for a man had arisen who was working for them. Te Whiti's final remarks were made in a voice of anger. At first he called that a deceitful and lying-people, but said that Jehovah had taken them under his protection, and bade them to cease fearing for the result. In conclusion, he said that those who had escaped prison, were reposing quietly, and the land was lying in the same place as of old, and that when the first arose, the latter would be returned to them. Both Te Wbiti and Tohu strongly depre« cated the auctions of land, and the latter spoke of them as equal in badness to a war, but bade them not to interfere.