Woodlands Satdy. evg. May 30 /63 My dear McLean The Postman arrived here this evg. and brought me your letter of 26th wh. had gone on to Porangahau. I will not go to sleep, depend on it, but will give you the first intimation of any movement I hear of. I wrote you a few lines this morning by Locke and have now nothing to add to them, except that Dr. English won't let me move for a week at least, wh. will defer my trip to Mataikona. This is very provoking but I must obey orders knowing that Hawke's Bay wd. come to grief withoutme, so I must take care of my carcass. I shall visit Napier soon after my return. I intended going there for the 24th June, but fear that I cannot manage that now, wh. will deprive the W.M. of the support he expected in the North. I was much pleased to see that the Govr. had decided on taking possession of the Ohakura Block, it takes the appearance of being actuated by cowardice from the withdrawal from Waitara. I only wish he was a little more fond of print. He ought to issue manifestoes and proclamations far and wide in English and Maori explaining every step that he takes and his for it. We have a right to know, and this reticence for wh. he is so notorious is Grey's greatest fault. Only before he prints in Maori I shd. like to see him get hold of an interpreter. I wonder who Bell's epistle into Maori - Bates? A more disgraceful attempt I never saw. It puzzles all the Maoris and I am obliged to translate it into Maori for them. I do most earnestly hope that you will meet the Magistracy and consult with them so that the whole question may be thoroughly ventilated. I don't urge this to get a chance of airing my own peacock's feather, as I prefer to let it get musty in a drawer, and shall be 100 miles off by the time you have arranged any meeting (unless indeed you did it within the next 8 days). But I am certain it will be a wise step on your own account as Supt., and will be the means of allaying or rather preventing a possible panic, wh. I fancy I can see looming in the Distance, and that with not one half the reason for it that there was 3 years ago when Waitara was the "take whawhai". I have no more to say so I must shut up - though getting better I am not quite strong enough yet for amateur writing. Yours most sincerely G. S. Cooper