Taranaki 26 January 1857. My dear McLean, The result of the election of Superintendent you will have received in Auckland by last mail. Instead of writing to you, I sent a long letter to Turton who could be anxious to know how the day fared with us. It was all over at 1/2 pt. 1 when Charles Brown gave in with a majority of 95 against him. Every one now knows he went to the poll without reasonable prospect of winning. Of support he had little for he had forfeited it, and his best men had given him up long since. The contest was not his merely, but that of office-seeking hangers on, who circulated false reports in his behalf to the last. C. Brown got into office by a trick perfectly fair in politics, yet a trick for all that, and he had not the discretion to keep in. All his misdeeds as Superintendent and Member of Assembly were brought against him, and as a last resource he appealed to the feelings of the Electors, telling them he would do the work for £250, and if they rejected his offer, he had nothing to depend upon except his property in the bush which was settled on his family. The electors