Kawhia 13 Dec. 1846 My dear Sir, I have to thank you much for your two letters of Nov. 9th and 16th. I would have written by the Postman but he hurried by without calling and now I am obliged to be brief and hurried as all my children are bad with the Hooping Cough and many more besides and I am sorry to say that I am now sole doctor of Kawhia. Dr. Endon having returned to England and Dr. Craig having gone into the country. One thing I must satisfy your mind about though I am sure my silence has done that already for it the tales you mention about Newton Te Roto etc. being about to combine and visit your settlement to avenge the capture of Rauparaha hadbeen correct most assuredly you would have heard from me before now on this subject even if Irishman like I had written my letter and carried it myself and even though I had been obliged to travel in doing so under cover of the darkness of the night. No Sir you may tell our Taranaki friends that we are all true men and loyal at Kawhia and so long as I am John Whitely and abide at Kawhia New Plymouth may rest assured that no evil will spring up here against that settlement without due warning being given. As to Taunui and the Mokau natives Mr. Miller who is here now says he does not think that any of them are at all disposed to engage in anything mischievous. The Tuhua natives some of them however have been or are gone to join Rangihaeata or to Wanganui but I think only about 12 and that was in consequence of some one of their relatives having fallen in the late wars. I hope to be able to get up there sometime this summer. Mr. Miller informs me that he had received the whole of the things you sent him both by Mr. Skevengton and since the mistake arose out of the circumstance of Mr. S. giving them to a Whakatumu tumu native on the road between Mokau and Kawhia, so that they went direct and I heard nothing of them. Mr. Miller wishes me to tell you that he and Mrs. Miller are very much obliged indeed, by your kind remembrance of them and if you should go their way again hope you will not fail to call upon them. Excuse my hurry and writing and believe me my Dr. Sir, yours very truly, John Whitely, Mr. McLean