New Plymouth 11th. Augt. 1873. My dear McLean, I know very little of Alexander, he brought me a letter from Dr. Horne; the acting manager of the Bank (National of N. Z.) knows him, as also Mr. Owen Jones, and Mr. Gwynneth; everyone who has been in Auckland and knew him there, speaks of him as a man who can float timber down the Waitara, and that apart from the supply of the railway with