it is worth securing, in case our worthy friend, the Capt., may come up and require a temporary place till he looks round him. The house is tolerably comfortable, and I suppose the price will not exceed £10 or £15. This place is much the same as when you were here, excepting that a few labourers have left, owing to the present high rate of wages at Auckland, which will soon be moderated by the influx of pensioners. But the really sensible settlers feel perfectly satisfied; and our grumblers, of which there are is seldom a scarcity in an English community, consist principally of those who are either embarked in some commercial or speculative pursuit, in which they cannot conceive it is to their advantage to encourage the honest and industrious producer. But the motives of this class are becoming so obvious to all, excepting a simple class of small farmers, that the evil will soon effectually work its own cure. We have found a splendid line of road to the new Block, and there are plenty of men now busily engaged in cutting it, - Law acting as overseer. What is your opinion of the Scotsman notice of the compensation of £600,000, to the New Zealand settlers? Is it thrown out as a feeler; or can it be relied on? It would be a very great benefit to the real suffering ones, - especially Wanganui and the Bay of Islands settlers. For my own part, I do not feel quite altogether sanguine on the subject, from the manner in which Gladstone viewed the claims of the unfortunate sufferers of that place. I suppose it will not be presumed that the former classes of labourers, who have so much improved in circumstances, and form the great bulk of the population, are to participate in this grant. Sir Walter Scott box is carefully locked up in a drawer; and only shews when particular parties dine here, to give the table quite an aristocratic air; and from the duly merited esteem in which the name of its original possessor is held, not only by our artistic people, but by all who have been entertained by his unequalled works. I must again return you my best thanks for the sacrifice you must have made in bequeathing it to me. I am in daily expectation of your goods arriving, and have a place ready prepared for them.