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MANIHERA AND KEREOPA. 
I wrote to Manihera’s friends, expressing the hope that they 
would take a Christian view of the sad affair, and not make it 
a pretext for future bloodshed. 
On the 1st of April, a large meeting was held to hear the 
letters of Manihera’s friends read, and to decide what should be 
done, for there was a very general feeling of indignation against 
the murderers. The letters were read ; they all breathed a 
very Christian spirit; the tenor of them was, that they were 
not angry though sorrowful for their friends’ death; that as 
they had died in the Lord’s cause, they should leave it with 
Him, and not in the old way demand blood for blood. 
William Tauri, the head teacher, who was also a Taupo 
chief, expressed his entire concurrence in the sentiments 
which the Nga ti ruanui had expressed, and made use of 
the following beautiful simile, to show that although a minis¬ 
ter or teacher might be taken away, yet that event, however 
deplorable, would not hinder the spread of the Gospel. A 
minister, he said, was like a lofty Kahikatea tree full of fruit, 
which it sheds on every side around, causing a thick grove 
of young trees to spring up ; so that although the parent tree 
may be cut down, its place is thus more than supplied by those 
which proceed from it. 
Another said, “ If a soldier of the Queen were to be killed, 
and we were bidden to arise, should we not do so ? And now 
that a soldier of Christ is murdered, shall we sit still ? When 
Paul, the teacher of Onetea, was drowned in the Wanganui river, 
did not his friends come and carry away his body to be interred 
amongst his own friends and relatives, and shall the bodies of 
Kereopa and Manihera be left amongst the heathen?” But 
another immediately arose, and said: “Why should we be 
thinking about the bodies of our friends and their resting-place ? 
We know that although they are decomposing amongst their 
enemies, yet their spirits are alive with God. 1 know what we 
should have done in former days ; but what would have been 
the good ? If we fight, we only increase our sorrow by multi¬ 
plying the dead. Let us not fear those who can kill the body, 
and after that have no more that they can do. Let us listen 
to our Minister, and take his advice.” Tahana, one of our 
