Wellington March 4, 1870 My dear Maclean I had a letter from Kelham by. last Mail - approving of the proposals I intended to make to Pharazyn - improvements carried out in the main - as I advised you three weeks since - The returns made by Esdaile are far from satisfactory - tho not worse than my own. They shew some 54 p. c. increase of lambs - but a decrease on the flock of about 11 per cent. Making the increase to the number of the sheep for the year only some 17 pr. cent There are 30 bales of wool, which will probably arrive in the course of a few days, as a vessel was sent to the station last week. The wool with my own is under offer to a Yankee Firm at 1/6, provided certain conditions as to time are complied with - The sum must be sent home, and an advance taken to clear the station, as far as it will do, of its present liabilities - From all I can see, the expenses of the station have been very much increased this last year. I intend starting tomorrow for Akitio, and hope to place more stations on a more satisfactory basis than they at present are. The great difficulty is a manager John McLachlan is simply a sheppard and Esdaile is a young man, brimful of conceit, tho in time he will probably be up to his work. One good man might easily superintend both stations. I have advised Kelham strongly to raise £2000 and go in for 5/- land, but he seems reluctant to invest in Land - Like most sheep farmers, he expects the station to yield him a good income at once. A change of rams is very much required but after having drawn so heavily on Kelham, I dont feel justified in incurring the expense, until I hear how he has stood the bleeding I have already given him. Things here, as far as Natives are concerned are daily assuming a more serious aspect. A feeling of intense suspicion pervades the whole of them, and I dread the slightest fracas between the two races. Your friend Turton is acting most foolishly and mischeviously as respects the King movement. If his letter to the Spectator does not satisfy you that he is the wrong man, nothing will. Yours faithfully I. E. Featherston