effected for a distance of nearly twenty miles leaving about fifteen to pack; for I may mention that Ngatapa is not above a mile from Karetu. There are 300 constabulary available including a part very raw. H.Potaes men furnish an escort to the drays and may perhaps some of them do the same for the packing. the scheme is to get forward a good store of food sufficient for the whole operation before taking position, and then to sit down in front and rear. In the opinion of Hotene, Ihaka Whanga and others the people in the pa will be easily invested as two thirds of the boundaries of the pa are inaccessible cliff, and the practicable approaches by two spurs in front (very gentle) and one in rear (with a low cliff on it) are very narrow and easily covered by our guns. The enemy are universally believed by our natives to be short both of food and powder, and the former as likely as they left a lot of potatoes taken from the Arai in their retreat the day before yesterday. It is very desirable that there should be more men and if Tanners troop would come again either to act