AN UNHOLY ALLIANCE- TE WHITI AND SIR GEORGE GREY.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VI, Issue 927, 17 October 1879, Page 2

AN UNHOLY ALLIANCE- TE WHITI AND SIR GEORGE GREY.

(New Zealand Times.) We cannot vouch for the authenticity of the following letter from Te Whiti to Sir George Grey, but it is always interesting to trace resemblances between minds which, though belonging to men m different stages of civilization, appear to rim m parallel groves : — Parihaka, Ist October, 1879. To Sir George Grey. Friend, — Salutations to you, the great promising prophet of the pakeha, as I am of the Maori. It is written, " The poor shall inherit the earth ;" let us help them to do this — or, rather, let us promise to help them, if they follow us. If' I go to catch my horse with oats, I do not let him eat them, but while he sniffs at them I put the halter over his head, and keep the oats for another time. This also Ido with my people ; this also you do with yours. I see by the papers that acting thus wisely during the elections you have gained many votes. Go on m this path and you will lead to high places of< power, and the people will look upon you as a god. But do not, oh friend ! give them anything at all. The common people are easily deluded by words ; for : them that is sufficient. When one of ' them— whose head was evidently as soft as a boiled pumpkin— asked for a cow. and a plough, and timber to build his house on the " promised land," I greatly admired the wise way m which you answered that foolish person. These things, you said, cost money, and time would be lost m getting them. Had you agreed, he and all other foolish men, of whom the elections show there are great numbers, would demand the cow and plough and timber at once and the money to pay for such things does not grow on trees. No ; you are not to be caught. "Pull oflf the legs of the crayfish, yet it escapes between the stones." This proverb was used of Wanganui, but it applies still more to you. . Again I say to my people, wait, and all shall be yours. Plough the land, and wait. Go to the Wellington prison, and wait. Pay lawyers, and wait. Take your cause before the Supreme Court, and wait. Faith will remove mountains. Have faith m me, and the great ones of the earth shall be humbled m the dust, and all who believe m me shall be exalted. But for the old women, all would be peace, and I should be happy. It is they who would disturb my dreams of a grand future. These old womeri come to me and say, " while you tell us to wait our food is consumed, no potatoes are planted, no fish are caught, our clothes are worn out, and our husbands are m prison, and can buy no more for vs N ." Then they squat on the ground and howl. When the wives of your followers come to you m like manner, then you, too, will see that to be a great promising prophet has its drawbacks. Still, though the time of low wages and great distress is coming, do you still dig up the land illegally for the Thames railway, as I illegally plough it up m Taranaki, for such acts will somehow, at some future time benefit the whole hitman race. Are we not both engaged m the same great work, preparing happy homes for the people, who can never be happy while one man has more than ten acres of land, because the right of his neighbor with more makes him miserable with envy. Thus, too thinks you late treasurer, Mr. Ballance. For this reason I think you did wrong m turning him away. Yet if, as is said, he secretly undermined you, like a rat working m the dark, you were right to&et rid of him. But the way of doing it was wrong, it was wasteful. Had the man who keeps my money at Parihaka played any suoh trioks, I should have eaten him on the spot. He could then do no more mischief. You, too, should have eaten your treasurer. Your man you have let get away. Now he is a wild rat he will do more harm than ever. Perhaps you thought he was.a pumpkin-headed man. I do not know all the ways of the Europeans, but among us he would not be considered a wise man after letting money fall out of one hand because he only thought he could pick up more with the other. With us when a man upsets the canoe, and the goods are lost, we do not trust him another merely because he says he knows all about the river, and points out its course on the map. Still, if you can make use of him, do so. I heard he got many votes from those curious people the Catholics, because they thought him soft enough to squeeze m a shape desired by their priests, also from without money who wanted land, by telling them that they had a plan for coining land into money. He called it a " land bank," but that is what it meant. When the pakeha wishes to deceive, he used words which he does not understand himself, nor do those who hear them. Then they all say, yes, that is just what we want, a (( land bank " is very good. My friend, listen, we two are like two men sailing m one boat. When it is calm we row. When there is a breeze we hoist up a sail. The wind bloweth where it listeth. Who can tell what he can do till the wind comes or doesn't 1 Then perhaps a fog rises. The stars are hid, so are the land marks. The people on shore are troubled, w our guides, " they say, " will be lost, they will never show us the promised land;" "per haps," say some, ''they have stolen the boat, and the food, and greenstone of great value." But we at last drift back, and tell the people that to us the fog was a clear light, all we want is time to find all we hope for. Then they prepare f a great feast for us and give us presents, and are grateful for what they expect to get. Yet, my friend, it is hard to be always inventing some new excuse for doing nothing but drifting with the wind and waves, and to be always pretending to see when m reality we see nothing but ourselves. Some day, I fear, the people will find ua out, and will join those terrible old women m howling against ua. My wish is that you should come here and sit on my mat, so that we can agree as to what shall be done. In any case I know that you will do nothing to injure me, for do we not dream the same dreams of what the future of our people may become if they will put their trust m us, and are we not both determined to have our own way, m spite of law and common sense, knowing that the way of the wise man is better than the way of fools 1 We are the shepherds of the sheep, and if they will not follow then we must trick or drive them into green pastures. — Enough from your friend, Tb Whim. Free Translation, Tito. Interpreter.