New Plymouth 8th. November 1856. My dear McLean, "Mr. Chilman's Claim duly came off on the 3rd. inst., and the "alienations of land without the authority of law" charges followed. A great stir had been made in each matter, chiefly by those immediately interested in the former; and both broke down utterly. I duly received your letter by the "Zingari", --- the mail of which was landed with difficulty, owing to weather. You were correct in suspecting there would be some rash meddling with the Kawau pa, but my evidence silenced it, and I trust it will end there, and not reach the natives, who really should not be subject to these intolerable vagaries of our Provincial authorities; even though they may be intended as attacks upon you. For instance, it was clear from Mr. Thomas King's bearing, (this gentleman acted as Chairman in both cases, a position altogether ineligible considering that he is married to Mr. Chilman's printed tables, and an old "ready reckoner" on which I pin my faith, cannot discover. Flight is not moving in Election matters, wisely leaving them in the hands of those who are agitating in his behalf. Quietly I have canvassed for him amongst a class likely to do him good service. He is not altogether the man for it, --- a little too old and precise, but his grand stand is being a Government man, and one who will not be objectionable at Head quarters. I was asked to stand, by several who come prepared again to bring me forward against the present man; but I at once objected so decidedly as to throw the interest into Flight's hand. And can my course be wondered at when I see my Chairman and proposer at the Hastings, (Captain King); and my Chairman, who walked arm in arm with me there, followed by the Blues in twos, and preceeded by a monster banner; and who afterwards for two evenings presided at our dinners, (Cutfield), cutting me even at the Church door, on account of the Superintendent's proposed road, in which I concurred as a purely act. No; --- rather than be the object of such manifestations again, I will ten times over retire into the sweet retirement of private life, --- poor though it must be in this poverty-stricken factious ungenerous place. You will see by the paper that our Superintendent appears in print, as the Organiser of a Literary Institute, and of a plan for the "education of the youth" of Taranaki. The latter is an 11th hour one under the Regulations. Of course the letter was written for him; and has, at this time, an electioneering aim. The Litrary Institute project, the article says, "is preferable to an age of total abstinence lectures, and is simply an electioneering declaration, in favour of the many who drink, and will be made use of at the proper time. Think how pleasant it is to have a Superintendent to say a word for us in reply to those anathemas of Dr. Neild against drinking. It is sure to get a certain amount of public house support; and under our democratic institutions, Jack is as good as his master, --- and worse luck, often better. To return to the first part of my letter, --- As Chilman's affair was a Company's one, it seemed proper that it should be represented in true light in the South, where Fox and others, well up in Company's affairs could thoroughly appreciate it, and the conduct of his late brother Treasurer. So in a letter to Stokes --- name of course blank --- I have given this morning a full true and short account of words. The letter is, I need not say, very much better than what I write you; though less descriptive. But we adopt a careful style for publication; and now I am in a confessing vein, I plead guilty to the letter of "Anglo New Zealander", which I wanted to blind you, and turn suspicion from myself, as the probable production of our good friend Richmond. And, considering the letter was a very good one, my deception had at least a considerable degree of unselfishness, for I find that your man who gets his anonymous letters praised to his face, itches to blurt out his secret; which I did not. So if you subscribe to the "Spectator" look in due time for the letter of 8th. November. Our "Herald" is full of news. Under "Art Union" you will perceive that four New Plymouth "parties" have drawn prizes at the last Meeting, --- your humble servant having got a Ten Pounder for his first subscription, as an earnest of the future. Last mail I received an exceedingly kind letter from our dear friend, John George Cooke, who could not write long enough on the simple proposition of my engagement. Of Mantell he saw much. Cooke was leading a life of sunshine, and gave me a list of scores of people he had fallen foul of, including Sir Godfrey Thomas, who had just received an appointment of £1300 a year, as Manager of the Guardian Life and Insurance Company. At the Reform Club, he saw Mantell, Chatham Strode, and Robert Waite, --- all old Wellingtonians. Arthur Petre got £40,000 with his wife. What a change from Taranaki! The tracing of the land at Awakino, will scarcely be finished for to-day's mail. Rogan wrote for it, but I forgot all about it until reminded thereof by an Official from Henry. Of him I have great difficulty in writing, --- that is of the offer of an appointment at Whaingaroa. It is a good one; and establishes him, once he accepts it, if not already established. His difficulty is the wahine, who has had warnings of late that her father and mother's time is fast coming to a close. Family matters, I know, should not weigh in this case; and yet their influence cannot be overlooked. I never could understand, and do not yet, why, in an essentially Native Province, like New Plymouth, where so much depends upon the tact of the man, and his circumspection, that the Government cannot give him a suitable salary. The buying of land is self-important; and so is the proper management of the natives; and the quiet arranging of the numberless cases of difference between the natives themselves and the Europeans. Peace now"looms in the future"; and you sight-seers say land sales will follow it. One of the grounds for removing Henry is the feeling of the Superintendent towards him. But day, let us hope, is at an end; and with Flight, or indeed any other man, Henry is safe to succeed. He himself is quite sensible of your kind feeling towards him, and of his own position; and will avail himself of the time for reflection left to him before any official letter arrives. The present is the worst time that could offer for removal. No money in the place. Land and houses and stock sadly depreciated; and nothing for it but bills, which Turton had felt to the full. How is to get to Kawhia with his numerous household, I know not. It is cruel to send him to the "bush", as he terms it, so long as Maori men can be got for the work. I am writing (by continuation) up to nearly 12 of Monday morning. Adieu, --- Yours very truly (Signed) W. Halse. P. S. I intend asking Cooke for his impressions of the Chilman claim. They will be interesting. (Signed) W.H. To:- Donald McLean Esq. sister, and to that extent must have more than a friendly interest in results) that he was establishing, --- First, that because the pa was not amongst Captain Fitz Roy's Reserves, the natives had no business there. (By the way, they overlooked the inevitable conclusion they must have come to, if their proposition had anything in it, --- that the natives would have every right to return to their old pa site in Brougham Street, from which they had removed at the request of the Company's Agent, --- for the present site.) Secondly, --- that you had enlarged the boundaries, and interfered with private lands. All you did under the latter charge occurred during my service under the Government; and from being well acquainted, from residence from the 1st, I was enabled easily to dispose of both, by acquainting the Committee of the circumstances under which the natives obtained their land on the North bank of the Huatohi; adding that the omission of the Reserve by in Captain Fitz Roy's grant, occurred from the Company's Office not having voted it, (Mr. Chilman being clerk) at the time; and I promised to the Committee a translation of the Grant, which in terms protects the natives in their pas, etc. Secondly, --- that the consequent impossibility of getting evidence of the actual land given by Mr. Wicksteed, prevented anyone knowing what had been the gradual encroachments of the natives during 10 years. To remedy this unsatisfactory state of affairs, you proposed a survey of the pa in 1852; which was done, and a plan of it signed by the Surveyor and myself, handed to the natives. That all I knew to have been done by you, in addition, was the recommending a ten feet road on the Eastern side, to enable the natives to enter their pa from that point; that I directed the surveyor to do this; and it is in the plan. Another equally frivolous charge was that Mr. Smart, (who had been urged to come before the Committee), had recently been dispossessed of a Town allotment at the Henui, by an arrangement proposed for increasing No. 14 Native Reserve; (on terms beneficial to ourselves as well as the natives.) My evidence in this was equally conclusive. First, --- nothing was done in this, by you, without the concurrence of the Superintendent, whom you will remember, objected to one line of section being given to the natives, unless they would open Currie Street, through the Kawau Pa. Secondly, --- that none of us knew there was a selected section affected by the proposed arrangement. You know we all, --- the Superintendent, Henry and I went into this at your lodgings at J. Hoskins', in a room none of the lightest to observe the faded pink that distinguishes the sold from the unsold land, in the small Town map; and therefore I requested that the Committee would attach any blame in the matter to me, as it was my duty to have referred to the Town Register afterwards. But they seemed (the majority of them, perhaps all but their Chairman,) to be satisfied that the charges were a waste of time. The chief card in their castle had fallen to the ground, and there was almost precipitancy observable in dealing with the other cases. Some questions were asked (all by the Chairman) about a road near the Mission Station, which was narrowed when the Grey Block was purchased from the natives! Mr. Wm. Bayley claiming the whole width, and about some Town allotments in Captain Fitz Roy's N.A.'s. These things I only mention as shewing the desperate straits the originators of the movement were put to connect you by hook or by crook with something, even although it might be an arrangement made in the name of Governor Fitz Roy or Grey. Mr. Chilman took a most unfortunate step for himself, when he moved in the affair of the swamp. I think I told you that evidence in this case was almost precluded by the manner in which the first Summons to witnesses was worded. The second reference from Auckland compelled an alteration in this respect, by allowing the fullest opportunity to those who could give evidence to do so. That which I brought forward, traced the claim from the year 1843, and I strictly confined myself to evidence, under the circumstances. Indeed, it left Mr. Chilman but one escape, which was to shew that land is at times given in excess of the claim. Even this was denied to him, for there was Mr. Wicksteed's letter, (copied into the letter-book by Mr. Chilman himself,) to Colonel Wakefield, explaining to the Colonel, who did not appear satisfied, why Mr. Chilman was allowed when others only got half that quantity. I think you ought to be in possession of copies of my documentary evidence under the Company's agencies of Wicksteed, Bell, and myself. It is long. What do you say to it? Thus far, as regards Mr. Chilman and the native, it may be seen, from the mere circumstance of Mr. Chilman's never having moved in a claim arising in 1843 until 1856, that he was attempting an unfair advantage; and in this I am borne out by his application for Crown Grants; otherwise extremely particular in his land claims containing no mention of this waste land. But he is now to judged as a claimant to land, which, if it ever belonged to him at all, he sold six years since to Mogridge; and this man's evidence, as being against himself in a measure, commends one's respect; for under the written agreement of sale, in Mr. Chilman's own writing, and drawn by himself, he, Mr. Chilman, disposed of all his Bell land between the Devon Road and the sea, and rivers, two natural boundaries; including of course, much more than Bell land. Mogridge, like all men who have risen from day-labourers to land-owners, knows his boundaries to a nicety. Barriball, connected with him by marriage, was attesting witness; and they both came forward, and stated to the Committee that Mr. Chilman sold his land under the Government; and that the swamp is no part of the property. This being unanswerable evidence, was not sufficient for Mr. Chilman, who endeavoured to elicit that the sale was subject to some reservation; but it would not do. The witnesses would not have it. To complete this extraordinary case, Mr. Elliot produced old Senr. better known as "Uncle Gruby" (?) who gave evidence of certain work he had been employed upon at the swamp, by Waitana and "Captain" Cook, making a bank dividing Chilman's land from it, etc., etc., etc., years since. The good people have been watching this case with considerable interest, and it is pronounced on all sides, to be a most flagrant job. They say (I heard it from Mr. Gledhill's lips, and he was a supporter of the Brown party) that it was never expected by those immediately interested, that the representations would refer it to New Plymouth; and they consider the Superintendent, (by the manner in which he introduced the Petition, and his anxiety to find fault with you), and little King, (whose exertions to procure evidence against you have been unceasing --- and anxiety to shield Chilman, the same), to be mixed up equally. It was rumoured that Chilman was to get the sack; that the Superintendent would pitch him over, to right himself; but the reverse, at present, appears from a laboured article in to-day's paper, (which I will enclose so that you may get it with this letter), written to draw attention from Mr. Chilman's individual claim, by insinuating that in all he did he was guided by an almost single desire of asserting a but as there is no to apply it to, after all the efforts of the prime movers, no one will be taken in by so shallow a device. What do you think of our Council movement? Some signed the letter to the Superintendent, asking for the dissolution, on learning the result of Chilman's claim. But the real purpose with the originators is the popular feeling and the condition of the Province. C. Brown has already his feelers out; and I was much astonished to learn that East, the man who ran counter to him at Auckland, is now one of his canvassers. If so, he is a greater "Clown" than he proved himself at Auckland. The Speaker, Mr. Watt, is the originator of the Circular, which is in to-day's paper. He has been a Brownite from the beginning, only opposed to the Superintendent I believe, because not allowed a finger in the pie. Therefore his cry is for an Executive Council, and so to get a share in the management. This, Brown has stoutly opposed until now, when it is given out that he is prepared to work with one. A requisition is going the round, for an enlargement of the Council, which has nothing whatever on hand, and therefore requires assistance, like him who helped some one who was doing nothing. But the farce is played out, I trust. We are, by our Government, eternally at war with the central authority; yet we do nothing of ourselves. We are running in debt, and have to borrow for everything; and yet we must spar and fight with those who give us all our aid, from the Governor downwards. Just review their follies from the time they commenced with Colonel Wynyard, to the present. Nothing can be more unwarrantable, to all attached, or more injurious to us as a Province. I was delighted to hear from Richard Brown, who has conscientiously abstained from politics, as a measure of self- conscienceness of his intention to stand for the Provincial Council first vacancy; on the sole reason of self-defence; and I trust others will follow so good an example. This same Brown is a singular conglomeration of good and bad; but withal, conservative, and a Government man, and most dreaded by the Charles Brown-ites, of those politically opposed to them. I understand, from Flight, that the Government have at length referred the proposition of junction of affairs to him for Report; and that the Superintendent, who was requested to furnish Flight with copies of the documents which were not sent from Auckland, on account of their voluminous extent, has taken the very unofficial step of referring him to the "Taranaki Herald" for the information which the Central Government considers Mr. Flight should be in possession of, before reporting. This is another manifestation of the of our Chief Magistrate's unsettled Constitution. I am not aware of Mr. Flight's intentions in the matter, but it appears to me that the political condition or overthrow of the Superintendent and Council, is a good reason for placing this question, as Dr. Knight would say, "in suspense." By the way, is there a Dr. Knight in Auckland now? It was said that the Auditor-General's office was to be closed. If not, I have one or two unanswered audit queries, --- one for a matter of 10d, or so; which Ritchie and I, by common arithmetic, and the use of