New Plymouth September 23rd. 1862. Dear Mr. McLean I received your favour respecting the £50 obtained by you from Leach on the 31st. March 1860. In reply I beg to inform you that I have reason to believe that you advanced a sum of money (a portion of the said £50) to Matene Te Whiwhi, and you also left with me £10 for Hoera Parepare which I have accounted for in accounts rendered to the SubTreasurer. You drew the £50 under imprest, but I included it in a subsequent authority for £100 for presents to Natives, which authority you transferred to me on leaving the place together with another authority for £200 which you have the originals of. What a world of changes we live in. Your own sudden disappearance from the Command of the Ship. Your subordinates all about to be sent before the Mast, or dismissed to make way for a Crew of upstarts who in their conceit fancy they are going to remodel the Natives by Magic, when suddenly Reinard the leader of the pack finds himself at Bay and takes shelter in his cover at Rangitiki, where may he end his days in peace, and never more be in position to whakapatipati or whakawai te Iwi of New Zealand again. That is the sincere desire of one who is quite as anxious for the welfare of the Native Race, as he ever was. The sight of the old hand writing on taking the letter from the Post Office quite revived one, it was like meeting an old friend after many years absence, a vicissitude after many trials and many changes of no ordinary nature as you well know. I am happy to say that Colonel Warre and I work exceedingly well together, with a little more service under Military Commanders, I shall be a Military man myself. Fred Carrington has been carrying things with a very high hand, since he returned with such authorities from the late Premier, but like the Premier he has gone the full length of his tether, the wasteful expenditure has completely sickened the New Plymouth people, now they know it is to be a charge against the Province. During Fox's reign he was all pacification, no one knew how to manage Natives better than he did. He had the conceit to tell Colonel Warre in my presence, that Wm. King would not have opposed the Sale of Waitara if he had been allowed to confront him (W.K.) when the Land was offered to the Governor in 1859. That he had prepared a statement of facts which would have overawed W.K. but that you would not allow him to go into it with the Natives. Fancy the fellow's egotism!! After the change of Ministry Fred became suddenly imbued with a War Spirit, having had several disappointments. To Wit: The Tapuae road - after all his kindness to Natives who he proded to be very ungrateful. One night at our Club room he commenced haranguing the meeting with a history of the great things he had done for New Zealand, the advice he has given to successive Governors, and that Domett was now doing the very thing he had always recommended viz. Raising a loan for Immigration to overwhelm the Natives etc. etc. etc. a portion of which I felt it my duty to take notice of by writing him a civil letter (copy of which I enclose) at which he was very wrath, and threatened to lay the case before the Governor on his arrival in which I perfectly coincided to his astonishment. He then commenced talking of his Writings on New Zealand which I told him was like a bubble of water, that no one took any notice of. He afterwards tried to make it a privilege of the Club that what was said there should not be made public. This I meet by saying that in such a case the Club Room would become a hotbed for abuse and sedition. Since then he has sent Doctor Wilson to me to assure me of his friendship and respect towards me, but when the Doctor saw my letter he replied "You have acted perfectly right and deserve the thanks of the Government for taking notice of the Puppy's conduct". I have had a busy month on account of the Wreck of "Lord Worsley" the account of which you will no doubt see in the Newspapers. I had some difficulty in preventing the Troops being marched off to force a passage through the Warea district. Such a course would have been fatal to the Ship wrecked party on arriving at Te Namu we should have found mangled corpses instead of living creatures. I sent a long report which you may see, unless you have altogether given over looking at those things. The Harrier Man of War arrived yesterday when we all thought the Governor was on board, but were soon convinced to the contrary. She left for Wellington in the afternoon. The amount which I paid for Your Nespaper was £1.11.0. which I should thank you to give to Halse, for my Daughter who is at Hammertons. When do you leave for the Old Country. I expected you would have been away ere this. Please give my kind love to Rogan who I have not heard from for a long time. Believe me Dear Sir Yours very truly Robert Parris.