Of course a mail service will have to be arranged from here to Tapuaehararu but whether by Constabulary or by Natives I am not quite sure the latter would do the work best. I have written you a long official about the Posts and force for Taupo and until the Urewera are not to be provided against a smaller force will not do. I also wrote you by last mail about the Constabulary. I am very apprehensive that you are on the wrong course with the last, at any rate the force is rapidly going and the tone and spirit is dreadful. I thought a good deal of Roberts at first but I cant get or keep him out of Town and his accounts are the excuse. He is full of etiquette nonsense also and made me quite angry the other day by complaining that if his men were liable to be interfered with he could not be responsible -- this referred to my authorizing McDonnell to take every man that could be spared from Tapuaehararu with him to Patetere after Te Kooti. I told Roberts he was talking nonsense and I was much disappointed at the want of zeal for the service which such trifling exhibited -- Really I dont know where to look for a good man to command -- you must