DAYS OF TE WHITI

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22975, 1 March 1938, Page 15

DAYS OF TE WHITI

| Sir, —"Kotnre" again writes extreme I things and ,ISCS * OO 1,1iU, . v superlatives j and, worst of all, dubs mo with sayI in«jr tilings quite foreign to niv mind. I Maori boys were my early playmates, brainv chaps who were hard to beat in class, and that fine Maori patriot and orator, Sir Maui Pomarc, was my lifelong friend. We called one another "townies." because we were born in neighbouring loealiti's. Maoris have been niv greatest friends. It is to bo regretted that "Kotare" used the words "post-Maori War Mentality" and "hero worship." Does he know that of the 1500 Maoris at Parihaka in 1881 less than a third belonged to the village itself; all the others were a reckless lot of visitors who should have boon at their own homes. The best Maoris were outside Parihaka. 'le hiti had rooted himself in the passions of his people by the possession of supposed supernatural powers. The pa of which he was the chief was the centre ot a dangerous agitation. 1c Whiti was a reader of the Bible, but there was another side to his character —he considered himself above our . Queen and free from our law and order. He refused to meet our Government commissioners and he refused to meet even our Governor, Sir Arthur Gordon. He did not help Sir Dillon Hell and Mr. William Fox to try to frame their favourable report for the Maori; he wanted the white people put into the sea; it was a line body of law-abiding j Maoris outside Parihaka who ''helped ! our Government to bring peace to Tarat naki." "Kotarc's" peacemaker cost the people £IOO.OOO and much anguish and loss of sleep to bring him to a snno frame of mind. Even an offer bv Sir George Grey, that all questions should be investigated by a competent tribunal at the cost of the Government, was put aside by To Whiti. ]f "Kotare wants to read the most illuminating evidence that he can procure on the state of affairs between the Parihaka natives and the Government and tho efforts that were made to straighten out the difficulties, let him read the Government Proclamation published in the New Zealand Gazette Extraordinary dated October 19, 1881, and given under tho hand of Sir James Prendergast, who was Administrator of tho Colony at the time, and if that does not let some liszht into his mind, all 1 can say to him is—enoho, onoho! Those who make history stand on higher ground than those who attempt to write it and posterity will judge our predecessors by their footsteps on tho sands, rather than by contemporary description. Faith in the historian has almost died out. because there is n tendency to whitewash the heroes and heroines of tbe past, which shows with double >force how weak and indefinite n thine history is even at its best. The history of New Zealand cannot be fullv written because it is only being made. W. K. Howiit.