HEALERS IN HOLTS.

NZ Truth, Issue 911, 12 May 1923, Page 5

HEALERS IN HOLTS.

Chance for a Big "Gate."

: Ratana v. Hickson.

It looks as though Healer J. M, Hickson will be up against it here if he bumps our own aboriginal product Ratana, and there may be some entertaining displays of professional jealousy if they happen to clash. Both are Church of England adherents and adopt similar tactics. Ratana 'has always wrapped a veil of mystery about j his mission, and keeps special watch i dogs to hunt off any interviewers, pressmen or photographers. At present Ratana is doing the Far North, where Tau Henare and Allan Bell stand first on one foot and then on the 1 other when engaged m performing their great political chameleon stunt. Ratana is always accompanied by a tribe of camp followers and a busy secretariat which deals with his bulky "cures by correspondence" work, Ratana has received thousands of letters from all over the world, and considers he can cure at a distance wlth- ! out the need of the layingr-on of hands i except on the typewriter. Ratana 1 mixes his curative campaign with politics, and was a very disturbing element m the Maori elections last year. If he were not so powerful and commanded so many adherents it is probable that before now the Attor-ney-General would have found him to be a tohunga, a Bolshevik, or something else undesirable. The missionaries among the Maoris regard Ratana with mixed feelings. They admire his "spiritual" work and the return it brings to the flock, but they are very dubious about the political part of it. Anyhow a "fair dlnkum" healing contest between him and Hickson w.ould draw a big gate and a record offertory. Can't John Fuller or J.C.W., Ltd., arrange to stage it?