POLYGAMY.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2397, 12 January 1909, Page 6

POLYGAMY.

[TO THK EoiTOll.] Sir, — In. your issue of a. few days ngn there appeared a telegram from Dunedin lioadcd “Polygamy hi Dunedin,” and simultaneously tliero. appeared in your loeal columns the announeemout of the arrival in town ol “Pun, with two wives,” only two out of six or seven, and lie eertninly looks well, and fco lie well kept. Now, what I niint to point out is I Ida: Jf the Dunedin man is in any way violating the .law, what i.s the Maori doing? ff polygamy means a. plurality ol wives in the ease of the. white man, it surely must mean the very same thing with the Mi.iori. f am led to believe that they in New Zealand are all equal in the sight of the law. If so, why punish the white man and exempt Pua, though he Ia; a, “'Prophet.? Py the why, wliaj, is a “prophet’’?. Tin. only meaning I emu see, is that Jin i.s a person who may live without work on the. credulity of •the people. A short, while, ago the Native Minister was reported to have said that “so long as Pua lived within the four corners of the law he. whs doing no harm;’’ hut, Sir, if die is living in polygamy lie. certainly is net living within the four corners of the law. Now, Sir, the. Christian religion certainly forbids polygamy, and, if, as we arc told, the government of the English, .people is founded on the Christian religion, polygamy certainly is w most II if grant violation of the law.-- 1 am, etc., , <f)<nV o Makaraka, .'January 0.