On returning from town yesterday afternoon, I found your kind note of the morning, for which I feel very much obliged. I went again to Power in the afternoon, intending to call on you, and see you off, but I saw you were too much engaged. The news is sad, very very sad, from Poverty Bay. I cannot, however, say that it was wholly unexpected by me, - at least as regards acts, not place. I always feared what the sad hunting of the returned natives might lead to (unless timely stopped); and when I found that the Friendly Natives gathered together at Wairoa were to carry on the war Maori fashion, (without any European head who had prestige enough to keep them in order), - and also heard of the murder of Te Waru's father-in-law, I felt sure something of this sad nature would inevitably follow. It is the old Maori mode of warfare, ''utu'', which so depopulated the country, - as known to us in the Gilfillan and Oakura tragedies; and to which I myself in early years more than once nearly fell a victim. (unsigned)