EAST COAST NEWS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XVI, Issue 5378, 19 January 1889, Page 3

EAST COAST NEWS

[from our own correspondent.]

Waiapu, Jan. 14, 18S9. We were last evening treated to a rare am splendid pano.-ama, the passing before 0111 visual organs of the Australian naval squa-

(Iron, five magnificient ironclads, comprising

the Orlando, the Admiralty flagship and live others, whose names and equipments your readers may acquire from better informed sources than your rural own of

Waiapu. Passing, however, these present realities, a reflective mind bore our thoughts Lack to the time when about a century and a half ago the great circumnavigator and explorer, James Cook, made himself intimate with these shores and bays, which in their county capacity, now bear his illustrious name. Of the thousands of bravo men on board tlio present squadron, how ft >uld reflect that they were steaming in Lho most approved modern fleet fashion along a coast hallowed by the most intimate examination and explorati >n of that great predecessor of Admiral Fai ax ! Did no generous curiosity inflame their breasts to go ashore and scp the spots where Cook had trod, and which ho had named ? In the wide range from the bold commander to the beardless middy or the nimble powder monkey or cabin boy, was there no sigh of regret, no tear of disappointment, because, as in the case of Alexander, there were now no more islands of the sea for them them to discover and annex to the ISritish Crown. One hears nowadays of devout persons making' pilgrimages to the shrine of some miracle-mongering saints, but would it not be a very appropriate tiling, albeit this is the "enlightened " nineteenth century, that heroic modern naval officers should, either on leave or on duty, pay their sea-kingly devotions and seek inspiration at Cook's Cove, and of the humble associations these humble places suggest. We colonists might do worse than erect a monument to Cap am Cook in the shape of a lighthouse on the East Cape. In my rural simplicity I want to know how it is that the cost of all lighthouses is not borne by Marine Insurance Companies. The Native Land Court is advertised to open to-day at Wai-o-matatini, in this fertile valley. A very ample roll of cases is set down for adjudication. 134 claims are made to have titles of land investigated and determined ; and 198 application are made for the subdivision of lands, in order that these lauds may be held individually instead of collectively or tribally as at present. There are also 243 succession claims, made by the nearest of kin to succeed to the land and properties of deceased relatives. As the Maoris may lie characterised as a nation of bastards, they would be speedily put out of any oi dinary Court of Probate, find the land would puss to the Crown (or rattier to the Sovereign people) as ultima haercs. That indeed would be a speedy solution of the native difficulty in so far as land tenure is concerned, and the briars of Waiapu Valley would quickly follow the late Maori proprietors into the limbs of forgetfulness. No such bold stroke of policy may, however, be expected under the trammels of the treaty of VVaitangi, and the watchful censorship of Hirini Taiwhanga, M.H.R. By the way, what ha 3 become of that worthy '! The judges and other officials of these Courts are just as moral characters as their brethren who sit in the courts of law, but in the Native Land Court, marriage is ignored, and the " bar sinister on the escutcheon" whether of the claimuiut or of some remote ancestor, is counted no bar whatever to an inheritance pure and undefilcd, uncorrupted and enduring. And so, judging from your columns, the only source of information open to us, the Anglican Synod of Waiapu decline to send a white Maori-speaking missionary to reclaim the lost sheep of their fold which have strayed into the fold of Mormonism. I wonder how many members of the Synod believe that clergymen of the Maori race have any influence or make any effort whatever towards fetching in these poor straj'ed ones. Why, the ranks of the Mormons on this coast are mostly filled up by those who have joined these Latter D. ,' Saints in order to spite the local preacher, ..ho in many cases has made himself unpopular by a walk and conversation unbecoming the Gospel of Christ. The Synod has, however, accepted the responsibility, and a heavy one it is, both in the eyes of God and Man. These Mormon people aie doing good so fa-v as the life and behaviour of their adherents are concerned. They do not drink, and they do not gamble. If any one. errs, he is put out of the community. And what does that mean ? Why, that he is given over to perdition. For tiie Mormons are strictly intolerant, and hold out no hope of salvation to those who reject their gospel. They further flatter the Maoris that they (the Maoris) are a part of the tribe of Ephraim, and as such are inheritors of the promises (bloodthisty and otherwise) of the old prophets. There now exists a complete separation between the Mormon and the Anglican Maoris of the East Coast. They do not associate, and they travel by roundabout roads to avoid going near the settlement of the oppoiito fiction. This is probably to escape the influence of witchcraft or the Evil Eye. Many of the church Maoris Bay they would join the Mormons, but they like to have a drink now and then. These, of course, are very loose and fast adherents, and it is to be hoped, however much it may be feared, that they are not of the numbers of church members reported to the Synod. How long thef;e poor deluded Maoris are to be left in the arms of Mormondom, God only in his wisdom can now tell.

Nothing further has occurred to throw additional light on the dreadful Pook murder, and it would seem the, case as laid before the committing Court four weeks ago will be the same substantially as that on which the jury will next March he asked to make their verdict. Your correspondent, with others, was puzzled to know what was the secret alphabet of Roman characters according to which the marks VI and X on the bloody knife came to mean H.P., the initials of the accused Haira te Peri. It seems that the first fourteen Roman numerals are taken to mean the fourteen letters of the Maori alphabet, I to V being for their vowels, VI for H, and VII to XIV being for the consonants k, m, n, p, r, t, ng, and w. These numerals are used as letters in carving wood, there being no curves as in the ordinary letters of our alphabet.