suspicion was sometimes mutual; many of the people in this district had a substantial distrust of pakehas. However it is not necessary to like pakehas in order to worship the God of the Christian Bible. The old distrusts have mostly gone now, Ever since 1938 the Ringatu Church has been organised according to a constitution which established it as one of the legally accepted churches of New Zealand, and later, a register of those Ringatu ministers (‘tohunga’) authorised to perform marriages brought it into line with the requirements of the Marriage Act. But even today, despite the special romantic, imaginative appeal which the Ureweras and their inhabitants have always had for so many New Zealander, not many people other than its 5,000 members know much about the Ringatu Church. It has few written records, does not actively seek converts, and has very little desire for publicity. There is one good book on Ringatu, ‘The Upraised Hand’, by William Greenwood (published by the Polynesian Society, 1942), but even today most of their sacred texts and prayers are kept safe from inquisitive persons with notebooks and tape-recorders; the long, complex medleys of Bible passages are committed to memory in the old Maori way, and no books are used during religious services. During our conversations with Mr Paul Delamere he made two points in particular which, we felt, explained a great deal about Ringatu to people who are new to it. ‘The great thing about Ringatu,’ he said, ‘is