You can purchase Nieuw Zeeland An English-Speaking Polynesian Country With A Dutch Name: A Humorous History of New Zealand by Geoffrey Corfield from Amazon today.
1905 – A Maori named Ruakenana from Ruatahuna, Urewera, has a vision and goes to see King Edward VII who was supposed to be visiting Gisborne in 1906, but never showed up. Undaunted Rua gets baptised instead and goes wandering in the wilderness for awhile (there’s lots of wilderness in Urewera to go wandering in); and then goes to Manugapohatu in 1908 and founds a religion called “Wairua Tapu”, and a settlement called “New Jerusalem”, with a gateway and two buildings in it called “Zion” and “New Jerusalem” where all his 1,000 followers called “Israelites” could live.
Illustration by Ink Blot
The symbol of New Jerusalem mounted on the gateway is two falling stars, a four-pointed stationary star, and three clubs (the kind shown on playing cards, not the weapons type). The settlement is raided by armed police for failure of the Israelites to volunteer for service in WWI, and Rua is arrested for preaching independence from New Zealand. There is a gun battle and two Israelites are killed (2 April 1916).
Released from prison in 1918, Rua rebuilds New Jerusalem in anticipation of the end of the world by a bombardment of falling stars. But when the world does not end, and the falling stars do not fall, and God does not come; Rua blames this failure on the Israelites not believing strongly enough.
Rua dies in 1937 predicting that he would be resurrected. It is not known if anybody has yet shown up claiming to be him.
1918 – On 18 November 1918, a 45 year old Maori sheep and cattle farmer named T.W. (Bill) Ratana, is sitting on the veranda of his house at Ratana, south of Wanganui, gazing out to sea (although there is no place called Ratana at this time, it was just a house and a farm near the sea).
A small cloud forms over the ocean and floats inland over his house, and a voice from inside the cloud (either of God, the Holy Ghost, the Angel Gabriel or the Angel Michael; it was difficult to tell, the voice did not identify itself), calls out to Ratana to unite the Maori, have them follow God, form a religion, and become a faith healer. So he does.
He throws away his beer off the veranda (voices in clouds do not approve of drinking); smashes his telephone (he doesn’t need it, he now has a direct line); starts reading the Bible, the Treaty of Waitangi, and a book on health; and begins faith healing and attracting followers to sign a covenant (the Maori are enthusiastic followers, and this particular variety will come to be called “survivors”).
Ratana becomes such a successful faith healer that a town called Ratana grows up around his house, with a railway station called Ratana, a post office called Ratana, and a Ratana Museum full of discarded crutches, walking sticks, wheelchairs and glasses; a testament to the healing powers of Ratana (the man not the town). Even a letter sent to a sufferer with Ratana’s signature on it and postmarked “Ratana”, can cure people who can’t make a personal pilgrimage to Ratana (a sort of faith healer house call without making the house call).
As well as having a town called Ratana, Ratana also forms a political party called Ratana (1922, affiliated with the Labour Party, they contest the Maori seats and once presented the Prime Minister with a potato, a feather, a piece of greenstone, and a broken gold watch); and a religion called Ratana (1925, affiliated with the Methodist Church, and with a five-pointed star and a crescent moon as their symbol).
However, by 1926 Ratana’s faith-healing powers are failing (as he predicted they would). He is convicted of drunk driving in 1927 and 1931 (while out chasing clouds), and dies in 1939. The church and the political party continue, and the town is still on the map.
You can purchase Nieuw Zeeland An English-Speaking Polynesian Country With A Dutch Name: A Humorous History of New Zealand from Amazon today.
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