(from a copy) 30th. November 1860. My dear McLean, I send you an official request that you will take a seat in the New Council. Now don't throw me over! I would not ask you to do anything which I was not convinced was for your own credit, or what I believe to be for your own good. If you are determined to retire into private life, this is the best mode of doing it, viz:- to do it gracefully. Don't leave your old friend. (Signed with initials, indecipherable.) (The initials are evidently those of T. Gore Browne.) To:- D. McLean Esq. Auckland. December 1st. 1860. My dear Sir, I regret very much that I cannot meet your views with reference to a seat in the Native Council. I have considered the matter fully; and the more I look into it, the more I feel that the measure provides for nothing but a few salaried officers. Had the Act contained a single clause which could lead to the hopes that something should now be done for the natives, nothing would delight me more than to become a Member of Council, to help in devising, and carrying into practical effect, measures for their social advancement. I shall feel obliged to your Excellency if you will transmit my letter of the 8th. ultimo, in reference to the transfer of native affairs, as an enclosure to your own despatches on the subject, by this mail. I have sent you a letter about Hadfield, written from dictation. I had not time, nor inclination, having a