The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE. Published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Morning. Saturday, October 25, 1890.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume IV, Issue 523, 25 October 1890, Page 2

The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE. Published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Morning.

Saturday, October 25, 1890.

Be just and fear not; Let all the ends thou aim’gt at be thy country’s, Thy God’s, and truth’s.

Everyone will be glad to see the expedition with which the threatened outbreak in the north was put down. There are those who look upon these apparently insignificant things with contempt. Those, however, who know the Maori character, are sensible of the importance of these trifling exhibitions of native ignorance and superstitious belief. There is no fanaticism so hard to put down as that of a religious nature, and there is nothing to which the Maori mind so readily adapts itself as the religious teachings of their various prophets. The examples of this have been numerous in the past, and it is only for want of opportunity that they are not as plentiful to-day. It will surprise many people to learn that there are still numbers of natives in this district who believe in witchcraft, and yet such is a fact. AH these things bear out the good sense of those who foresaw the danger of a visit from Te Kooti and warranted the strong measures they were forced to undertake in order to oblige the Government to move in the matter. The Maoris are possessed of a great deal of sound sense and judgment, but they are naturally of a temperament which receives a plausible myth with facility, and are easily worked up by a show of earnestness. Mahuki and all who aspire to the mantle of the prophet will receive a salutory lesson, and he will have his career cut short just in time. From seizing houses it is but a short step to looting them, and fanatics have little regard for the life of a religious opponent.