MORMON CONFERENCE AT TAURANGANUI.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 8375, 1 October 1890, Page 6

MORMON CONFERENCE AT TAURANGANUI.

Ihaka Tabawuati, a non-Mormon, writes as follows, on September 22 : —

At a district conference of t.lio Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, held on September li), '20, and '21, at Tauranganui, Waikato Heads, a conversation took place between some of the principal chiefs of that section, and pome of the representatives of the above-named denomination, regarding the future motives of the said Church in the way of endeavouring to exact from the Maoris their lands and possessions as a remuneration for their ecclesiastical labours among them. The reason the inquiries were made and the answers to them may be summed up in the following : — The large hui house in which they were convened had been built by the Maoris, and upon Maori land, and they wished to ascertain if the church would appropriate their house and land, as some of the former denominations bad done with them in the past. A non-Mormon chief said : " I wish to say a few words to you, the Mormon ministers, and I greet you, my friends, as men of God, who have come hero among us, and take this opportunity that you might hear what 1 have to say. When religion was brought here to us, to New Zealand, schools of learning were instituted, and churches erected under its administration in many of our districts, that we might become learned in the principles of the faith, but soon contentions arose, and our lands and houses in many cases were taken from us by the missionary church. Therefore, 1 wish to say unto you, do not pursue the same course, nor turn from the labour of love to the seeking of land, as other churches have done."

He was answered by A. T. Wright, president of the Mormon Missionary Labour, who said: —"1 greet you, my friends, in pence; both you who are Mormons and those of you who are not ; and wish to say, in answer to what has just been said, that I have been here in your midst for the past three years, and have travelled in almost every part of tho island, and have heard of your sufferings, and your losses of lands, and so forth from former churches, but cur object here is not to seize your lands, but to bring you the true Gospel of Christ. This house in which we are now gathered is your own. You yourselves built it. You know that we have no home among you, that w u are continually travelling irom place to place, and when the three years allotted to us j.re fulfilled, we return to our own home in America. You know this, and that the first churches in your midst have become in possession of your lands and have built houses of worship thereon, therefore you speak of your sufferings and their dealings with you in Miis way. You can see the trouble brought about by them in thus diverting from the true labours of religion. For a tree is known bv the fruit thereof.' .

".Several others of both parties spoke upon the same subject, and the minds of the Maoris were satisfied on this important points that their land and possessions were to remain unmolested so far as the Mormon Church was concerned.