MAORI SUPERSTITIONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13286, 19 September 1906, Page 8

MAORI SUPERSTITIONS.

FATALISM AND THE TOHUNGA

INTERESTING STATEMENT BY --.. -- DR.- POM ARE.

[bt telegraph.—Special correspondent.'

" Wellington, Tuesday. ; The following remarks on tohungaism ap'.pear in tho' annual report of Dr. Pomare, , health officer to the Maoris: The Maori, , being a Polynesian, is a great fatalist.: . What the gods have decreed must be. Fatalism hangs over the race'like a funeral pall. .In the Far North a little while ago a father told, his son that he (the son) , was bewitched. The boy went to bed, and .within a week; he was dead—fatalism. • At v this time I visited the village, and was told ' that the father was ,ill. All unsuspicious of what had taken, place, I examined the i ...old man, and found -.him perfectly healthy. r % found- also that he had,-refused all food ■ ;fpr some days, consequently he was weak. After. examining-him, and finding that there was nothing the matter, it suddenly- dawned upon.me.that.perhaps the old man thought lie was bewitched. . Consequently I had a bowl of chicken broth prepared, and then I went to him and said, ' Your ailment has been revealed unto me., Take this bowl of broth. The ceremony has been performed. Eat and live, thanking the gods for their gifts.' He ate, and, after polishing off the broth, said that foe could feel the light of life circling through his veins. It is needless to say that man is still living. Had dio been a European, an Elijah Dowfe or a Christian scientist, would have cured him. It is tho fatalistic idea that r drives the Maori to his tohunga, for all diseases which cannot bo accounted for are considered mate Maoris, and no one can cine a mate Maori-except a tohunga.' It is pleasing to report that some 'councils have refused to.grant tohimgas licenses, and.yet in one district nearly all • the .members of the council "are followers of a tohunga. It is hard to know -what to do" without interfering with- the liberty of the subject too much. Of. course, as long as we v allow crystal ,gazing, .fortune- telling,' spiritual mediums',.and a host of.other.quackeries to thrive in-our 'midst, we'cannot very well see clearly'to tako out the mo to in 'our' brother's eye,- but - nevertheless Ave cannot' help recognising the greatness of the evil of tolurogaism, and that it must be grappled with at once. The only solution-of the problem that I can see, and that has' been pointed out' years ago, is the compulsory registration of every death. The fear of gaol and a few, post-mortems will brine them into lino . quicker than anything. i know." . • ! THE HOPE OF THE MAORI. "' The health officer says:—"Wo have looked into the question of tho decline of the Maori, and have found that tho causes of this were legion. Bad housing, feeding, clothing, nursing, unvcntilated rooms, unwholesome pas, wore all opposed to the perpetuation of tho race, but a deeper knowledge of the Maori reveals to us the fact that these are not tho only potent factors , in the causation of his decay. This was a. warrior, once used to fighting for liberty or to death. All this is gone; fighting is no more; there is no alternative but to become a pakeha. There is no hope for the Maori but in ultimate absorption by the pakeha. This is his only hope, if hope it be, to find his descendants merged in the future sons of the Briton of the southern .- hemisphere." THE CRY OF THE CHILDREN. Dr. Pomaro says:—"Tho good Samaritan has not yet appeared. Evidently he lias not beard the stifled cay of Maori infants. Perhaps be is'-waiting for the Government to give him a salary before giving instructions to ignorant mothers on infant management and the prevention of disease, or the call from the foreign lands, whose inhabit-,-ants .we love so much in New' Zealand, ,drowns the feeble cry of the Maori infant."