New Zealand Government House Mercer June 20/72 My dear McLean, Thanks for your telegrams. If the weather is fine I think I will shoot at the Wairoa for one or two days reaching Auckland late on Saturday night. This will be wind up of the season. We are now at 571 pheasants and want to make up 600 I shall be ready to start for Wellington at the end of next week if you like. Probably we ought not to be later than July 1st. I enclose some Maori letters addressed to me at Rangariri. I heard there yesterday the details of a gallant action performed by Hori Te Whana of Pamahone who rescued a man named Loder from drowning in the Waikato on the 19th inst. There were 3 Englishmen in a canoe wh. upset. One was drowned, another swam to shore, and the third was saved by Hori at the risk of his own life. I saw him, and he is a very fine fellow and spoke modestly of what he has done. I told him that I wd. write to you about the Govt. giving him some reward in money. £1 or £2 wd. please him, and would be sent to him through Searancke, he said. I think I shall also recommend him for the medal of the Royal Humane Society. Mr. Shirley, the andlord of the inn at Rangariri, offers to keep in repair the fences etc. of the cemetery there (where the soldiers killed at the fort were buried) for a trifling annual sum - £2 or £3, I understand. Yours very truly, G. F. Bowen The Gentlemen Inhabitants of the Thames wish very much to pay their respects to His Excellency the Governor and would therefore humbly request that he would kindly hold a reception at some time during the day James Skene J. P. C. A. Robertson,Lieut. T.S.V. J. A. Chapman,T. S. V. W. D. Battle Wm. Wilkinson T. G. Sandes John H. Salmere A. Broglie