HEALING BY FAITH

Taranaki Daily News, 13 July 1933, Page 7

HEALING BY FAITH

MAORI TOHUNGA’S POWERS..

‘ NUMBER OF CURES CLAIMED.

Gisborne, July 10.

Remarkable cures are claimed to have been effected by a Maori woman healer whose recent activities at Hairini, near Tolaga Bay, have attracted a consider-/ able amount of attention from the native community. It is stated that large numbers of Maoris are paying visits to the healer.

The new tohunga makes no-claim to supernatural powers, a pressman learned to-day from one who had made a personal investigation of the circumstances. Her powers are based on Christian teaching, and those who seek her assistance in regard to stubborn complaints are advised at the outset that without faith in God they cannot benefit from her ministrations. The application of the term tohunga is made in the true Maori sense, not as indicating . a sorcerer, but accrediting the woman as an expert in her own field. Among pakehas the term is often applied loosely, and is used to imply quackery, but quackery is said not to be. a feature of the Hairini tohunga’s work.

A number of case of recovery from long-standing illness have been reported since this woman developed the healing power, and in one case, a wellknown Gisborne native is said to have been relieved of a rheumatic disability which had forced him to take to crutches 10 years ago, and had gradually increased until he was unable to dress himself. This man is reported to have visited Hairini on crutches, and to have walked away without assistance, after receiving the ministrations of the tohunga. He is now at home, and able to walk in the normal way, and to enjoy a physical recuperation such as he had entertained no hope of securing.

The tohunga, it is asserted, does not treat cases which require actual medical or surgical aid. Her claim is that many physical disabilities can be cured by faith, and the prayers of those who share the faith, but a woman who attended one of her recent meetings, and asked for assistance in regard to an abdominal complaint was advised to see a medical man. The tohunga remarked, according to witnesses of the incident, that the woman was frightened to approach a doctor, for fear of the result of an examination, but she was assured that there was no need to fear, and she, left the tohunga much heartened, and pledged to secure medical assistance. A number of parallel cases are on record to the credit of the Hairini tohunga, whose influence is rapidly extending.