Letter from P. Wilson to Donald McLean dated 14th. May 1849. Wednesday morning 14th. May 1849. My dear Mac, The post of Saturday week brought no other intelligence respecting you, than that your aid, Willis, was on the road hither; the postman having passed him reposing himself at Hineora; and consequently that he had letters from you for all, or so many of your friends here. But that did not come on till Tuesday evening last; and behold, not a line from you in his possession. Nor can we gather much out of him, so we suppose, from the circumstance that he has not left you with a certificate of very good conduct; and from the little I have seen of him since his return, do I think he will be so much required by us as to merit one from us either. We had Mr. Fox here and his lady for ten or more days; and they only embarked on Friday last. Your estimate of the man is, I think, correct. He appears to be a very straight-forward man of business, and takes clear views of what he looks at. He is the very sort of man the Company required to put that Body again in its proper place with the settlers, after all the out-of-joint twisting which the ruinous reign of the Wakefield clique for a series of years had mendaciously given it. He has earned golden opinions here; and the Dillon Bell is now in the descendant. I took an early opportunity of having my letter put into his hands; and on the day following, called on him with Wicksteed, when he at once conceded to us our kept-back land, as a matter of common justice; and I guess he will not let my expose of Master Bell's character lie in oblivion, nor ought her. He also conceded to the others here, the acre and a half compensation, in a manner that gave great satisfaction; and to Watson, the pilot, he has awarded what Bell thought , 200 acres of land, and 4 town sections, for the injuries he sustained in the blowing up affair of Liardet's. In short, he, in all cases, conducted himself in such a way as to give universal satisfaction, except in the solitary case of Billings and Turton; and in that he capsised our lawyers quibbles by a written assurance that the land in question was acknowledged by the Company as part and parcel of its property; and that Crown grants would be issued immediately. Consequently, on this, Halse brought the case again into Court on Saturday; when, after a long debate at the magistrates, it was decided that Billings was neither an yearly tenant, nor a tenant at will, but a -consequently must now be ejected by a summary process, Our old friend, the Captain, could not deny that he, clearly, now, was so; yet the notion of six months notice had so got hold of him that he stuck to his opinion like a leech; so, as he anticipated, was outvoted. We have in our Court, and too little leaning to equity, but I think matters will mend, Standish is too much the Conscience-keeper of King; and being allowed to practice as an Attorney, a solicitor may give an undue bias in favour of his clients. The evil of this is that important cases may be brought forward when no counter-acting magistracy is apprised, consequently not on the Bench. This calls loudly for remedy; also that the Clerk of the Court should, by legislative enactment, be obliged to notify one or two days before the sederunt (?) to the Magistrates, by circular, the particular cases that are to be brought on. We are not lawyers, but by this means we might prepare ourselves in some measure for fair adjudication; and this, certainly, some few would be sure to be present on the Bench. As, from Mr. Fox's account, we are again to be put into the Southern division, you might manage to give the Lieutenant Governor a hint on these subjects; but if you could get us a good high-principled lawyer, you would render an essential service. At present our attendance is altogether casual or accidental; as, for instance, on Saturday I had got as far as Bailey's farm on my way to Omata, when a messenger of Mr. Halse, the Agent, overtook me, with his request that I would attend. As intimated in a post-script of my last, I brought your man into Court, when he was fined five shillings, - not for the damage done, but for cutting what he had no right to cut, viz, - my trees in hedge. I regret to say he behaved much worse than I could have anticipated, i.e. - on oath he gave most false versions as his motives for the act, and persisted most strenuously that the trees or bushes not only so overhung his land as to keep the sun from it, but that the wind had so altered them from the perpendicular as to lean over six feet of his ground, or rather of the once intended road. This was done so deliberately, and so determinedly, and yet was obviously so absurd an assertion, as to call attention of all of the Bench; and though questioned and cross-questioned as to the fact, he persevered in maintaining it, though he could not but know that the temporising purpose his asservation might gain, I could upset in a moment, the fact being that he had been stopped in his cutting before he finished the hedge; and that those bushes still standing, though probably the most exposed of all to the wind, are growing as perpendicularly as trees could or can grow; and, most unluckily for his assertion, moreover, he has left stems of those he did cut down, some feet in height, all of which indicate that they also grew in the perpendicular. Thus it appeared to me that a man who would thus perjure himself to gratify a needless vindicative feeling, or attempt to gain a paltry point, was not a very proper person to be entrusted as a witness in any case in Court. Consequently I laid a statement of the affair before it, and Captain King has directed two Magistrates to see if he did give perjured evidence. Moreover, as I saw that his litigiousness was likely to bring me, or anyone into trouble, I entered a covert against his being habilitated as a subject of Her Majesty, until he gives assurance that he will comport himself differently for the future. He and Willis, I observe, are now as loving together as can be; so I guess I may be on the look out for further annoyance in some way, knowing the latter well enough not to trust him out of sight. I have sold a half section of my Omata land here to your old Policeman Grey, and am going to lay out the money in what appears to me a very nice young mare belonging to Mr. Brown. Her price is to be £30; and as she is pretty well advanced in foal, and is only 4 rising 5, I think her, upon the whole, not dear. She is somewhere, I should think, about 16 hands, and has the character of being a good roadster, and drives in harness, which latter will be a great saving to me next season. Grey says he has money in Captain King's hands, but cannot get it without your order; and he desires me to forward to you the enclosed note respecting it. You need not be in a great hurry, as Mr. Brown gives me a month or six weeks credit. You remember the bit of ground on the right hand side, as you go down the garden, and on which I sowed carrots, - I do not think the extent is over the 14th. or 15th. part of an acre, but I am going to measure it, as we have taken off no fewer than 7325 lbs. of the article; many of them measuring from 18 to 22 inches in length, and in circumference, from 15 to 17 inches. Positively there is no land like that of Taranaki. Do convince Breadalbane of this. Wicksteed and I are determined to go to Wanganui to select our Compensation lands; and Mr. Fox assures us we shall have timely notice. I was very much pleased to see his attention to Wicksteed, and the little man very properly appreciated it. We had a Public Meeting on the subject of Earl Grey's convict exiles, at which Fox made a very pretty speech, and very much to the purpose. Rather singular, while he or Wicksteed were in the act of harranguing, letters from Auckland were put into all the Magistrates' hands, calling on us for our individual opinions by the Governor, on the subject. Of course we were unanimous in rejecting the proposition; and, moreover, sent off by last post all our J.P. opinions into the bargain. I shall copy mine for you on next page. I know of no news here, local or general, farther that I am going to make a stir this week about the price of bread. Our 4 lb. loaf, with wheat at from 24/-to 28/- per - is 6d.- and I see in Edinburgh in a late paper that wheat averaging from 63/- to 72/- the 4 lb. loaf is only 7d. These people heavily taxed, too, in all ways. It is quite scandalous, and really the Captain ought to stir himself more in his official capacity, than he does. Referring to Campbell's quiz at all of your ilk, - "Did you ever know a McLean who had not a boat of his own?", - I may tell you, as you will indeed see by the enclosed, that the Wilson have now got a tartan of , Certainly I shall have some of it ordered out, if but for Christopher North's sake. But I am just going to mount the new mare, on trial, to Omata; and shall just leave him to run off a copy of my letter to Sinclair. Helen desires her kindest regards, and accounts for your silence by asserting you must have seen somebody you like better than yourself. I hope you have. Fox asserts most positively that you are to be re-cast into a Land Commissioner and that. so Sir George told him. We shall be mighty sorry to lose you; but if for your advantage, none, be assured, will be more rejoiced than we, to hear of your advancement. Moreover, he gave it as confirmed that we are again to be attached to Cook's Straits Government. I remain my dear Mac ever faithfully yours (Signed) P. Wilson. Pat has been very unwell these two weeks past. We have got £10 from Honi Ropia on your account for the foal, but he wants to know the price of it. I met him coming from Chapel yesterday, and told him to have a letter for you here this morning; which he promised, but has not yet brought it. I shall apply to McShane for the money for the mare, but I understand he was scant of the material on coming here; which may not now be the case. (Signed) P.W. Merchant and family have gone to Sydney, and from thence goes to Hobart town. He is too much of a fool to rest anywhere.