A SACRED VILLAGE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2150, 27 March 1908, Page 2

A SACRED VILLAGE.

THE HOUSE OE RUA.

(Special to Times.) WELLINGTON, March 26. Iho Maori prophet, Rua, who says ho is John the Baptist, and who has gathered a following of credulous Maoris about him, has 'built a sacred village in tho wilds of the Urewera country, which, until quite recently, has not been very accessible to tho ordinary European. Rua has built films elf a sacred village on the sits of an old fighting “pa,” The forest lias been felled and burnt, and a marvellous amount of work has been done in a very short period by tho st-al-wart Maoris among his adherents. xt L* l '- Mcfntosh Beil, Director .of the .New Zealand Geological Survey, who lecently visited tho village,- has given mo an interesting description of it. the village, ho says, is divided into two parts, one inside and the other bey ond tho palisade. No ono is permitted to eat within tho inner village which is sacred, though both tho bank and tho store find a place within it. lliero are about 100 small buildings ill tlio village. These are used for sleeping in, and food is partaken of in a separate place. The two principal buddings, aro the “nalace” and tho temple.-’ The latter is a somewhat remarkable building, circular in form, and of between 70 and 80 feet in diameter. The main structure is surmounted by a smaller one, the tower of which rises to a height of 50ft, Ibo seats aro arranged round the central pulpit, from which Rua speaks to his .people, but- the upner narfc is a kind of holy of holies', to" which only the prophet and his apostles have access. Tlio tenmlo is gorgeously painted in blue, yellow, and white iho ‘palaV’ os only for tho prophet and his six wives. It is a four-roomed house, with a corrugated iron roof. One would imagine a modern John tlio Baptist might have at least respected tho conventionalities to the extent of getting his “palace” architect to stipulate at tho very least ior one room one wife.” Olio good point about tho new villago is that both >it and its inhabitants aro scrupulously clean.