CLAIM AGAINST RATANA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18276, 18 December 1922, Page 6

CLAIM AGAINST RATANA.

JOINERY FOR CHURCH. [by telegraph.—own correspondent] WANGANUI, Saturday. Ratana's Church was discussed in the Magistrate's Court this morning, when Reed and Barron, joiners, proceeded against the Maori " faith healer " to recover £23 odd for joinery work supplied in connection with the Church and other buildings at Ratana.

Plaintiffs claimed that tlie order was to bo a cash transaction and that an employee of Ratana gave the order and the measurements. Later, when plaintiffs telephoned to Ratana for payment the latter was alleged to have stated that as the plaintiffs would not trust him he had got the work done by another firm. Plaintiffs said they part of the work in the church at Ratana. Ihe building was on defendant's property. For the defence i( was admitted that the church was not erected by Ratana, but by communal methods. The magistrate asked whether the church was on Raiana's property and Counsel replied in the affirmative and stated that it was r'reehold. For the defence, it was argued that the order for the joinery was not given by Ratana but by another person who was building at Ratana and, therefore, Ratana could not bo held responsible. The magistrate ss.id he would dever his decision until Monday.