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.