Wallingford Feb. 7th 1866 My dear McLean I have no news of any kind to give you this week and white chiefly to say that the overland mail between Castle Point and Porongahau is stopped and that the Settlers at Porongahau and Wainui (a good many people in all) have applied to me to endeavour to get it carried as usual as they say it is a great boon to them. Will you please enquire what is the reason for having stopped it - What have you done about paying little Fitzgerald for the road work There will be a great shindy about the manner in which he has got public money for doing nothing (if you have paid) when the Council meets - and rightly too I think. I hear from all sides that he might just as well have stayed at home as have gone along the Maori track, which was all he did - I should advise you to take care your position in the matter is dependable for it is sure to be taken up and made a good deal of by the Council - I hear from Wellington the writs are to be out positively almost directly - There is no doubt Stafford is keeping them back to suit his book. Weld's retirement gives Stafford a great pull - I suppose Sewell will try and lead an opposition, but who would follow him I am sure I would'nt. By the bye we must move again in getting an expression of opinion from the natives between East Cape and Wairoa in favor of severance from Auckland - It ought to be set going at once and done properly, even if it costs the Province a trifle - The last petitions were awfully loose documents and wd. have carried very little weight in the House when they were read - Several members who looked at the manuscript dropped the cause directly - Another thing was all the signatures were in 2 or 3 peoples hand writing - The way the thing ought to be done is first to get drafted the most telling kind of petition you can write, suitable for Maories to send. Then put it into Maori and send some one right along the Coast from Wairoa to East Cape with it - not getting the names from each place to a few words of agreement. But all the names o be in succession on sheets of parchment to make a long string of a Petition with. I should recommend that action be