Wallingford Jany. 5th/63 My dear McLean, As I have not heard from you by the Mail I conclude you are at the Pakiaka etc. - I have nothing to write you about except to say that I fear I cannot be down at the Council sitting on the 18th. I am in the middle of shearing - very short of hands - and my harvest ripe on my hands at the same time. You can write me if you will be able to manage. Be careful of one thing in no way allow the passed Loan Bill to be interfered with. Once open it and you may have trouble not only with the Council but what is very much more important with the Genl. Govt. Nopera tells me tonight that a native at the Hapuku's Pah called "Kemp" had picked up a letter dropped by the mailman and that it contains a cheque for £100. Of coursel dont know the truth of this but you may enquire about it. Nopera goes to Napier tomorrow with Paul to return the money for Mungarorara. I saw a very rotten letter in the paper last week written by Mr. Buchanan - The curs who write in the Times keep snapping away. It is a pity we have no organ in which to pay them off. Wood's paper as a defence is worse than useless. Is he not game to have a go at his friend Colenso about the £350 he made at the last assembly - It wd. be the hardest hit the other side could get. I have not time to write more to night. By the bye please tell Weber that the Rokomoho bridge (the largest between here and Porangahau) was smashed down the other day and that I authorized its being re-constructed at a cost I think of about twenty pounds. I enclose a note for Weber. The communications overland to Wellington wd. be stopped if the work were not done. Will you ask him to see about laying out the money voted for Porangahau and Tautane roads. The cuttings between here and Waipukeru and the Road to Tautane - the people about here are grumbling and I think they ought to get a little done for them. Yours always, J. D. Ormond. Let me hear from you by the mail.