I dont think it is worth much more until it is improved but under terms of Rhodes past lease he ought to have improved it. This he did not do, purposely I hear, to get a pull in taking it again - Col. Browne wrote me he wanted the place as a provision for one of his sons so that a long lease would not be desirable. Whittaker might give Rhodes a 3 or 4 years lease well enough on the former terms. If the most were intended to be made of the property it wd. be by cutting it into three pieces and letting it publicly - I advised Col, Browne that such was the way which wd. be most remunerative to him and wd. ensure the greatest improvement to the property. About Roberts I have already written you. He can be spared without any difficulty. Scannell is quite as good if not better than him - but both are full of pretentious military nonsense and are useless in anything connected with Natives. It is a great drawback not having an officer at Taupo who could be used for communicating with Natives - the only man who is at all useful in that way is Sub. Insp. Gudgeon and he is also by far the most active officer in getting work out of his men and generally in pushing things on. For instance he was