HE KUPU WHAKAMARAMA
Te Pipiwharauroa He Kupu Whakamara Number 29 Gisborne, July 1900
[1] THE MINT [THE GOLD SMELTING OFFICE]
When I was in Sydney I saw the Mint [the Gold Smelting Office] where money is made, the god which confuses people’s thoughts. Everyone has said at some time: ‘The love of money is the root of all evils; in their eagerness for it some have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains’. For the love of money men have afflicted their bodies, they’ve destroyed their good names, they’ve cut the throats of friends, they’ve given over their bodies as slaves to the god of evil. But money can be a means of bringing about good for people, of doing great things for people’s benefit. Money is not the root of all evil, but love of money. A person is wrong when he makes money his chief, directing his acting and thinking; rather let him change so that money is his servant doing what he wants done.
