My dear Featherstone, I returned yesterday from Hawkes Bay having made preliminary arrangements with the Natives for the purchase of considerable tracts of land in that quarter and along the Coast towards the Castle point purchase and between that block and Wairarapa the opposition of the Natives and chief difficulties of acquiring land in this part of the Province are now overcome and all that is requisite to open up these districts for immediate location and settlement is money to conclude the bargains with the Natives. For this purpose an additional sum of three or four thousand would be most acceptable at the Wairarapa and I am fully relying on aid