of the truth of what I have stated; it is the gossip of the place - and it is better that you should be made aware of it at once than that opponents of the present Ministry should make a handle of it. I would just remark that such a state of things is subversive of all discipline, and tends to reduce all Govt. Officials in the estimation of the Natives. They are aware that such condict in a public officer would not be tolerated in a respectable community in the towns, and the more intelligent and respectable of them come to the conclusion that a native population is considered so low in the scale of respectability that it matters but little what kind of man are sent among them. There is another light in which this matter may be looked at. Who can say what facilities may be afforded to Te Kooti for obtaining in- infomation by means of Hau Hau women and their followers who congregate about them? And last (not least) I firmly believe that no people or community can expect a blessing who are ntent to allow the Laws of