Post by Kiwi Frontline on Sept 18, 2016 9:22:10 GMT 12
Dear Editor, (Sent to the Taranaki Daily News 18/6/16)
Dean Peter Beck's long article ("News',13/6/16) is a prize example of the innocence of the unworldly. Parihaka was the home of a cult which should be anathema to his church. I have already provided Catholic Bishop, Charles Drennan - whom I happen to know personally - with much information to substantiate this assertion and he has totally ignored it. The true pacifists to whom the albatross feathers were symbolic were the Chatham Islanders, murderously slaughtered by tribes from Taranaki whom they had received in peace. There can be little real doubt that stories of their pacifism and symbolism were taken back to Taranaki by returning tribesmen and duly seized upon by Te W'iti and Tohu.
Parihaka historian Te Miringa Hohaia, discounts any commitment by Te Whiti to Christianity. At his funeral, Homi,son-in-law of Tohu said "These men were past masters in word-painting; that is all! You have been deceived". Many men, including Dean Beck, have been deceived since.
As for Mayor Judd, he said not a word of his racist ambitions in campaigning for office - New Zealanders don't like that sort of thing. Democracy is too precious to be tampered with as he aimed to do.
By contrast, Chris Makonga, sets out his ideas very clearly. I congratulate him for that and wish him well.
BRUCE MOON
Nelson
Dear Editor, (Sent to the Northern Advocate 14/6/16)
It is a gross waste of taxpayer money to earmark $4 million in the current budget to commemorate the so-called "Land Wars".
Hostilities in the early colonial period were not 'land wars' but tribal rebellions, duly quelled by Government and loyal Maori forces.
In the Waikato rebellion, the tribes threatened to kill all the white people in Auckland and told lies about an alleged church-burning in Rangiaowhia. The Hau Hau in Taranaki and on the East Coast used the heads of their victims in religious rites. At the Wairau, Ngatitoa butchered bound and helpless prisoners. Is this the sort of thing New Zealanders should commemorate?
That it is sponsored by the leader of the Maori Party suggests a racist political motive.
Outside Auckland, the money could house a considerable number of homeless Maori families – a much better way to spend it.
BRUCE MOON
Nelson
The Editor, (Sent to the Otago Daily Times 13/6/16)
As the mid-winter solstice approaches and the constellation of Pleiades ( the seven sisters ) begin to appear in the night sky, the news media, together with schools and kindergartens again remind us that this is "Matariki" which, among other things, heralds the beginning of the the Maori new year.
There is nothing wrong with European New Zealanders celebrating Maori seasonal festivals if they wish to, but there's something very wrong in ignoring their own ancient Christian festival of Saint John ~ the birth of John the Baptist.
In the northern hemisphere, of course, St John's day is in mid- summer. It's message then refers to the inner Christ / Sun which must increase as the outer sun of nature decreases ~ "He must increase and I must decrease". ( John, 3-30 ). These are profound thoughts which have been increasingly denied to recent generations of the very Western peoples who carried them over the blood and ashes of human error for so many centuries.
C R
Dunedin
Dear Editor, (Sent to the Wanganui Chronicle 11/6/16
Maori Party calling for Maori wards, The same party who wants the treaty honoured which gives us all the same rights want to break the agreement and want special rights for Tangata Maori. What I can’t understand why Mr Flavell can’t get his facts right as Maori are not tangata Whenua they never have been.
The tangata Whenua were the fair-skinned people who were here before Maori as history tells us. The word means “the ancient ones or the people before us”.
On the 25th November 1947 New Zealand adopted the statute of Westminster passed by the British government in 1931. The statute granted complete autonomy to New Zealand in foreign as well as domestic affairs, after 1947, all the people of New Zealand became citizens under one flag, and one law irrespective of race, colour, or creed, but since this time, part Maori through the 1975 Treaty 0f Waitangi Act have gained advantages and privileges over their fellow New Zealand citizens never intended by those that signed the Tiriti o Waitangi in 1840.
I say to Mr Flavell get your people to put their nomination to stand for council just like the rest of us as we don’t expect special treatment.
I B
Wanganui
Dean Peter Beck's long article ("News',13/6/16) is a prize example of the innocence of the unworldly. Parihaka was the home of a cult which should be anathema to his church. I have already provided Catholic Bishop, Charles Drennan - whom I happen to know personally - with much information to substantiate this assertion and he has totally ignored it. The true pacifists to whom the albatross feathers were symbolic were the Chatham Islanders, murderously slaughtered by tribes from Taranaki whom they had received in peace. There can be little real doubt that stories of their pacifism and symbolism were taken back to Taranaki by returning tribesmen and duly seized upon by Te W'iti and Tohu.
Parihaka historian Te Miringa Hohaia, discounts any commitment by Te Whiti to Christianity. At his funeral, Homi,son-in-law of Tohu said "These men were past masters in word-painting; that is all! You have been deceived". Many men, including Dean Beck, have been deceived since.
As for Mayor Judd, he said not a word of his racist ambitions in campaigning for office - New Zealanders don't like that sort of thing. Democracy is too precious to be tampered with as he aimed to do.
By contrast, Chris Makonga, sets out his ideas very clearly. I congratulate him for that and wish him well.
BRUCE MOON
Nelson
Dear Editor, (Sent to the Northern Advocate 14/6/16)
It is a gross waste of taxpayer money to earmark $4 million in the current budget to commemorate the so-called "Land Wars".
Hostilities in the early colonial period were not 'land wars' but tribal rebellions, duly quelled by Government and loyal Maori forces.
In the Waikato rebellion, the tribes threatened to kill all the white people in Auckland and told lies about an alleged church-burning in Rangiaowhia. The Hau Hau in Taranaki and on the East Coast used the heads of their victims in religious rites. At the Wairau, Ngatitoa butchered bound and helpless prisoners. Is this the sort of thing New Zealanders should commemorate?
That it is sponsored by the leader of the Maori Party suggests a racist political motive.
Outside Auckland, the money could house a considerable number of homeless Maori families – a much better way to spend it.
BRUCE MOON
Nelson
The Editor, (Sent to the Otago Daily Times 13/6/16)
As the mid-winter solstice approaches and the constellation of Pleiades ( the seven sisters ) begin to appear in the night sky, the news media, together with schools and kindergartens again remind us that this is "Matariki" which, among other things, heralds the beginning of the the Maori new year.
There is nothing wrong with European New Zealanders celebrating Maori seasonal festivals if they wish to, but there's something very wrong in ignoring their own ancient Christian festival of Saint John ~ the birth of John the Baptist.
In the northern hemisphere, of course, St John's day is in mid- summer. It's message then refers to the inner Christ / Sun which must increase as the outer sun of nature decreases ~ "He must increase and I must decrease". ( John, 3-30 ). These are profound thoughts which have been increasingly denied to recent generations of the very Western peoples who carried them over the blood and ashes of human error for so many centuries.
C R
Dunedin
Dear Editor, (Sent to the Wanganui Chronicle 11/6/16
Maori Party calling for Maori wards, The same party who wants the treaty honoured which gives us all the same rights want to break the agreement and want special rights for Tangata Maori. What I can’t understand why Mr Flavell can’t get his facts right as Maori are not tangata Whenua they never have been.
The tangata Whenua were the fair-skinned people who were here before Maori as history tells us. The word means “the ancient ones or the people before us”.
On the 25th November 1947 New Zealand adopted the statute of Westminster passed by the British government in 1931. The statute granted complete autonomy to New Zealand in foreign as well as domestic affairs, after 1947, all the people of New Zealand became citizens under one flag, and one law irrespective of race, colour, or creed, but since this time, part Maori through the 1975 Treaty 0f Waitangi Act have gained advantages and privileges over their fellow New Zealand citizens never intended by those that signed the Tiriti o Waitangi in 1840.
I say to Mr Flavell get your people to put their nomination to stand for council just like the rest of us as we don’t expect special treatment.
I B
Wanganui