New Plymouth February 22nd. 1851. Dear Sir, I am much obliged to you for your private letter of 24th. Jan. which I will now answer in detail. On a reference to the Report of 23rd. November last, I find an unsatisfactory notice of the then threatened rupture between the Puketapu and Taranaki natives; which accounts for your remarks on the case; and unless subsequently furnished by me in a letter, which had not reached you when William Stewart left, an omission has occurred that somewhat surprises me, from the care used to put you in possession of the topics of the day in this settlement, from the moment you left it, for the South. However, though not now of moment, I will give you the particulars out of which the would-be- quarrel arose. It was alleged by the Puketapu natives that the remains of Tokiwati, once a Chief of their tribe, who died a natural death many years since, and was buried at Hauranga, had been removed, and worked up into fish-hooks by some Taranaki natives; whereupon