Government House, Tasmania >4 Sept. 1866 My dear McLean It is an age since my eyes have been enlightened by the sight of your hand writing. I dont think the fault is mine for I believe I wrote last to you. If I did not I hereby apologise and beg you to shew your forgiveness by writing me a long stave telling me of your own whereabouts and how you are what you are doing etc. etc. We have a telegram from Melbourne saying Stafford has made a coalition ministry and Monro hints that you may be Native Secretary. I trust the news is not too good to be true. It would be the most sensible appointment Stafford has ever made. New Zealand seems to be always in a mess but when I see that your revenue is above a Million it is evident that the Coach will right itself unless the passengers are determined to upset it. I remember looking at Tasmania with something like envy because her population was 90,000 and her revenue £200,000. The case is reversed now, the Tasmanian population has remained as it was and the revenue falls off every year. Our Ministers proposed an income tax which Parliament nominally agreed to but they have so emasculated it that it must be abandoned. So with all your financial difficulties you are far better off then quiet Tasmania. I hope you have good accounts of Douglass. My boy Harold blew his hand to pieces with gunpowder but the doctors have saved and patched it up so that he will have almost the whole use of it. Now give me a sparequarter of an hour and tell me all about yourself and those poor Maoris. I can't help liking them very much though they must be made to submit to the Law. Steward and my wife send very kind regards and I am always yours very sincerely, T.G.B.