Wellington Nov. 29 1867 My dear McLean, I want your best attention. First for myself I want to exchange the repose of the Controllers office for more kindred pursuits. 2. I want to see my way to open a career for half a score of lusty sons and daughters and it may be more in long array hereafter. 3. Above all I want to devote myself to the work of my life - the colonization of this country. 4. I want to do some practical work in the native question. This is my plan. I am told there are large tracts of good enough land to be got in the Taupo country. Sir G. Grey says it is as well grassed as his lawn here. Making allowances for his imagination I am sure there is plenty of land good enough. The especial district which has been pointed out to me is the plain lying east of Tongarairo and Ruapehe and including the slopes of those Mountains and the Rotoaire lake. Grey says he has walked and ridden over this country and it is good. It is said to be bounded on the south by a desert tract of stones probably the bed of some geological river several miles wide. I have no doubt you know the country well enough. I want to get a lease from the Natives of some 300,000 or 400,000 acres of this country, for say 21 years. If it could be arranged that I could purchase it or as much as I want of it from time to time at a fixed price so much the better. But I dont want to deal with this like a solitary squatter. I want to make a there. First I would form a limited company of shareholders. I think I could get round me a body of good practical colonists who would join in the scheme and help to found the new land. To this company I would then transfer the run under settled conditions for its disposition and for leasing (with purchasing clauses as soon as we acquired the freehold) part of it to settlers. We would lay out a town and make the road in to Hawkes Bay. And in short make a powerful and thriving settlement. You may say that there is not much work left in me for such a task. True I am now transferring bodily work to my sons but in very few years I shall have more of muscle and sinew to dispose of in my own family than falls to the lot of most men. Nor have I much means, affairs being in so depressed a state at Canterbury that property such as mine cannot be readily realized. But I have some more experience in founding new Colonies than falls to the lot of most men and I could make it available in this great work. But I would not now engage in a speculation of this sort unless on terms in which I could receive the management of the whole affair myself in concert with some few others who I could rely on to aid and not frustrate ones labors. I think if we saw our way Rolleston would be one of us. I want to inspire you with the same feeling I want you to join in founding the greatest settlement and the great power as we should soon make it, of the whole coloney. Again as to the natives. My object would be to persuade the best of the young chiefs to come in and settle with us teaching them by example and practical work in what our power of utilizing a country and extorting comfort and wealth out of it consists. I should have no doubt as to the ability of calling around us some of the best men in the Coloney. The first thing is the We must get that at once and get it by a tenure which shall be beyond the reach or control of the Govt. The first step would be to put large flocks of sheep on it, work it as a run, so as to get a return to pay for our tea and sugar whilst we founded the settlement. The next would be to dispose of a part of the land on favorable terms so as to induce artizans and laborers to settle on it. All this would be easy if we could get the land. And Grey assures me that this run at least to the extent of 200,000 acres is to be got now. It will soon be gone. Some bidder like Cox will get it and if it goes into the hands of mere sheepfarmers who have no object but that of making themselves rich it will be a great blow to the prosperity of the north island. It will postpone its settlement for half a century. Now at all events I wish you could help me to get this country. I do not know whether my name is known up there. I have been told that it is, and the natives might like me to come and live amongst them. I would come up at once but I dont like to spend time and money in a wild goose chase. I am told Cox has got a good run you could, if you like, get this country for me. If the plan of founding the settlement failed I should still go up to live there and sheep farm. But that is not my main object. I want to deal with the native question in the heart of it and to leave behind me some more work worth a mans doing before I die. The thing to teach the natives, as to teach all men, is the value and comfort of industry. Once establish a settlement at Taupo and we should be able to make colonies of our Coloney in all directions in the interior. The only two things to get are - First the land as a field for our labor and secondly half a dozen resolute and educated men to undertake the work. You get me the first - I will get the last. I care little about capital. What capital had the Mormons? With land and men we will soon make the capital. What we are most in doubt about is the nature of the country - the accounts are very various some say it is bad, others like Grey and Holt say it is very good. To my mind if it is passably good soil and will keep a sheep to three acres on the native grass it is good enough. Of course you know it and could say. What is the first practical step to take? I suppose to send an agent up to buy or lease the land. Can you do this? Could you go yourself? It may be that your office in Hawkes Bay would stand in your way; but you must see that nothing would be such an advantage to Hawkes Bay, at least to Napier, as a great settlement in the interior. The road must go to Hawkes Bay - And I have no doubt when once prospected could be readily made. You may smile at this letter as that of an Enthusiast. Only remember what I have seen done at Canterbury. And on the West Coast. This things surpass any desires I formed when I was engaged in helping to found Canterbury. One sees how difficulties vanish before work and pluck. Depend on it the thing is worth doing and can be done if we choose. I give three years from next Xtmas to see a thousand people settled at Taupo. Especially if you will join. And this is the real and final solution of the native difficulty. This is the army we want there - picked men to subdue the earth, instead of a set of tipsy whoremongers to insult the men and debauch the women Please write to me in reply and if you can take any steps to get the country for me, take them at once. Is ready cash wanted? And how much? If I get the land on lease I can get the cash to go on. I wish you to keep this strictly except to Ormond if you wish to tell him - but these things are spoiled by being talked of. He will be secret. Yours very truly James Edward FitzGerald Grey went off to Kawau in the Sturt today.