Auckland 11 July 64 My dear McLean, I am going to tell you a very extraordinary circumstance that occurred to me. A Mr. Budd called upon me, and stated that 32 years ago he was at Opotiki as a mate of a trading vessel and that he had been left there as a hostage for four Natives who embarked in his vessel - that he remained at Opotiki for upwards of a year, formed a connection with a native woman, and that the native woman had a half-caste child, she must be his, as no European was there during the time. He mentioned the woman's name, and it appears the child is the mother of Thomsons children. There cna be no doubt of the fact. I told him her history, and I brought the children from school and I never saw a man so delighted.