New Plymouth, Feb. 7. 1854. Sir, I beg to acknowledge your Honor's communication of the 3rd inst., and, having regard to the peculiar circumstances of the case, cannot refrain from expressing my extreme surprize and regret, that you should have thought fit to menace me with the terrors of the Native Purchase Ordinance; an Ordinance which, but for its absurdity and impotence, would long since have become a facile instrument of iniquity and oppression. Such enactments are only fitted to become roosting places for owls. Far from considering myself worthy of the Prosecution, which you have so benevolently recommended; I actually have the temerity to imagine, that your Honor is exercising an unwarrantable, impolitic, dangerous, and therefore, a highly censurable interference with the rights of private property. Possibly, you may have some faint remembrance of your Honor having recommended, and His Excellency, Sir George Grey, having sanctioned, and at the pressing instance of The Revd. H. H. Turton, the Wesleyan Missionary, a Lease of most valuable land close to the Town, from Te Rangi to Mr. Vercoe, a protege of Mr. Turton. Possibly, you may also recollect a poor man named Loveridge, who held possession of a section near the Mission Station, under an Agreement with Te Rangi and Robert, essentially the same as Mr. Vercoe's. This section excited the insatiable cupidity of Mr. Turton; who, accordingly, did not cease to annoy Sir George Grey with importunate applications. The event might easily have been anticipated. His Excellency's adriot flattery and incessant intimidation of Loveridge, who, unfortunately, had no influence to recommend him, speedily ousted the latter in favor of his mercenary antagonist. Of course, the orthodox Sir George Grey never dreamt of conciliating those formidable schismatics, the Wesleyan Missionary Society. Those two cases were, in principle, the same as my own; but how unlike in result! In the one, Mr. Vercoe, supported by his clerical patron, had only to ask and have: in the other, every official nerve was strained to the utmost, in order to gratify Mr. Turton's lust of power and gold, no matter at what expense of justice and equity: but in my own case (and that in a matter not of favor, but right,) a courteous application is met by a most uncourteous refusal, devoting my unfortunate head as a propitiatory sacrifice to the Provincial Gods! On Mr. Wm.Bayly's taking a Lease from Te Rangi, the thunder was heard to growl faintly from the Official Armory, and, as might have been expected, was equally innocuous with that of the Vatican. This attempted intimidation, might, therefore, have been well shared: more particularly, when taken in conjunction with your Honor's ludicrous, ill-advised, and futile endeavours to appease the indignation of Ihaia, by explaining away to nothing, your Honor's solemn and deliberate official communication to myself. The Land Question has truly been worked on the "dog in the manger" principle. After early gross mismanagement, after long years of inexcusable, and disgraceful neglect; after extensive tracts at the Waitara () being offered by Ihaia and Tamati to Sir George Grey (on His Excellency's last visit, upwards of three years ago), but ; after His Excellency, on the same occasion, being informed by a most competent and credible authority, that a considerable quantity of land at the Waiongona, could in all probability, be purchased; (Katotori being, , favorably disposed towards selling); at which report, His Excellency expressed his extreme gratification, and, as usual, did nothing; after Sir George Grey leaving the Colony abruptly for England without calling, even for a few hours, at New Plymouth; though the last Imperial visitation took place at a very remote period, and the Natives were, consequently, most anxiously expecting His Excellency, and were, of course, proportionably disappointed and disgusted by his non-arrival; and though Sir George could find leisure for a pleasure voyage, with the Bishop, to the Solomon Archipelago; after, in short, the eleventh hour has arrived, and the accredited authorities have no longer the power, nor, seemingly, the funds, to buy land at all adequate to the urgent necessities of the Province; they, nevertheless, try by all means, fair or foul, to prevent its being acquired, however straightforwardly and legally, by any other parties than their own partizans: preferring, apparently, that the fertile land should remain a desolate wilderness, rather than that their own mediciency should be glaringly exposed by a private individual succeeding with ease, where they, armed with all the prestige of office, have signally and ignominiously failed! Such a miserable state of affairs was, however, to be expected, from the favoritism naturally incidental to an arbitrary government. The entire system is a monstrous farrago of humbug: a system by which the needy hangers on and myrmidons of the Great Man are quartered on the Public, without the slightest reference to their fitness:-a system, in short, by which the Settlers are sold, not the land. Had the Gentleman, who originally applied for the office of Protector, obtained it, we should, in all human probability, have had, many years ago, abundance of available land, for a very moderate price: as most of the earlier Settlers, speaking candidly, would affirm. A strong proof, (amongst several others), of that Gentleman's capability and influence, might be adduced from the fact that he (as no one knows better than your Honor), was the virtual and sole cause of the largest Block in the Settlement, the Omata, being disposed of by the native proprietors. But it is the oft repeated tale, "sic, voa non vobis" etc. Your Honor has the credit with those who are really ignorant of the circumstances and also with those who are afflicted with short memories. Behold, now, the startling contrast presented by this ill-used man and your honor! One languishes in most unmerited obscurity and indigence, basely and ungratefully neglected, alike by the Government which he so opportunely assisted, and by his fellow settlers whom he so materially benefitted; whilst the other, despite of having ever caused far more harm than good to this Settlement, by his petty jealousy, partiality, and want of judgment, rejoices in the plenitude of his salary and retinue, and is looked up to by the unthinking multitude as an Agrarian prodigy, in fact, an undeniable "rara avis in terris etc. It is worthy to note that, though several instances of native outrage on the persons and property of white men, have been coolly passed over by the local and central authorities; these functionaries have, nevertheless, scrupled not to invade, as far as they dared, the vested rights of the Aborigines in their own lands: heedless of the injustice to both races, and of the pernicious impression produced on the Maori mind by conduct so indefensible, and so deeply to be deprecated. In conclusion, I hear that extensive Crown Grants have been issued to Aboriginal Natives for their own lands; may I therefore request on behalf of Ihaia and Tamati, that Your Honor would be graciously pleased to direct the issue of a Crown Grant to those Chiefs, for the large amount of land at the Waitara, of which they are the individual, sole, undisputed, and undoubted Proprietors. I have the honor to subscribe myself, Sir, Your Honor's most obedt. hble. servt. Richd. Seccombe