Wallingford Octr. 6/64 My dear McLean, I have yours by the mail for which many thanks I have little to tell you of from here nor have I though of anything during the week to remind you of. I see by your letter that you have done all that can be done in the meantime in regard to the various matters I have written you on. Also that you are to have your Maori meeting some time in November let me know the date as soon as you can and I will try and arrange to come down for a day or two. Mr. Nopera has given me a detailed account of his interviews with you and of their result. These natives have a great greed for money and nothing increases this like the taste of it. Mr. Nopera I doubt not will soon be anxious to renew his acquaintance with the money bags. Paul Ropeha was with me yesterday as you will have ascertained. He and old Ropiha together with Apiata are considerable claimants in the 40 mile bush. I have recommended Paul to see Featherstone about his claims to the land disposed of - he wants to letter from you to Featherstone which he will take stating his claim etc. Unless you write me to the contrary I shall tell him after the receipt of the next mail that you will give him a letter but that he must go by way of Napier to get it (this he proposes) my notion in sending him to you is that you will find him useful agent to work your plans out for the purchase of this side the 40 mile bush. He is very greedy for money - his wants are very great and he is very unscrupolus - moreover he is generally successful in getting his way and doing what he likes with the people down here - and if you get him in your interest, you will not have much trouble with the rest. I do not think there is any disposition to sell the Block we wish, but as you say it will come. I think there is a conclusion to sell the block on which Roys run is. If we have got our Provincial business all square we are in a different position to Ministers what in the name of fortune they are to do is more than I attempt to think. A failure of the financial part of the policy was never dreamt of and now it has come it is difficult to see how it is to be met. There is but one way -- the only to meet present necessities is through Grey's order on the Commissiariat and what a position for him to hold with men who he must hate as he does Ministers as for the future I do not believe the present unjust and unfair feeling at home against the Colony will last and feel assured that if the present financial crisis be tided over, that our credit will soon be restored. The best chance for the Colony in our opinion is an immediate meeting of the assembly. Its consequence would be the formation of a more reputable Ministry and one of the first Acts of a new Govt. would be to send its best man home to act for the Colony. As for Mr. Reader Wood and his Mission, if we had only given the subject thought, what else than failure could have been expected with such an ambassador. As far as we can gather from the information before us Mr. Wood did a good many things that he ought not to have done. For instance he thanked the Col. Secretary for guarranteeing one Million of the Loan on terms to which the Assembly will not and ought not to listen. But it appears to me that he entirely omitted to do that which was really his mission he nothing towards getting the money the Colony needed and he left England after having entrusted other people with this essential part of his mission. No movement is made to test the probable success of the application to the money market until after Mr. Woods departure and then it is found to be a failure. Really when one considers the great colonial interests-that have been imperilled by the employment of this incompetent blockhead one feels truly how great was the mistake to entrust the Govt. of the Country to the men at present in office. I can scarcely write or think sanely when I consider the subject in this light - and think how different a state of things would have existed had not Whittaker'schemes been allowed to mature and effect themselves. It was almost on the throw of the dice last session whether a first class Govt. composed of - Stafford, Domett, Weld and either Whittaker or Fox should come in or if the Govt. shd. be left to Whittaker as it was by his own scheming and the wretched tail he has associated with him. Of all the abuse we read of in the English papers we know that the Staff Officers of tthe Army in New Zealand are the real authors - and if we go further we may trace their feelings and opinions to the doctrines engrafted upon them by Bishop Selwyn who was a Member of their mess at the Queen's Redoubt and who at the time I was there advocated in their hearing and with their approbation exactly the same expressions as those officers have since by their influence made become accepted in England as the true state of the case as regards the New Zealand colonists. However it is idle to rant upon this subject. The only thing left us is to wait patiently with the assurance that things cannot possibly be worse and that when the Assembly gets the chance it will rectify the present state of things. Don't forget to start something of the kind I wrote you of about Colenso's seat and the mischief he may do in it. There is nothing like keeping these things before the public e and in this particular instance all popular sympathies will be adverse to him if the case be handled properly. Dont make him the martyr make the people the martyrs. I have written very hurriedly and it is very late what rubbish I have written I scarcely know. Always Yours sincerely, J. D, Ormond. Little Geordie is a great deal better thank you.