Clyde Novr.12th 68 My Dear Sir, I cannot keep silence when I see plainly what the fearful consequences must be of allowing affairs to drift under their present management. What I intimated to you has turned out fearfully true; and you will scarcely credit that it is now proposed to denude this District of its defenders by sending Ngatiporo to Poverty Bay. This would be a wise step if done in the way I proposed to you that is if the rear of this place had been swept out, when the means of doing it was at hand -- I am almost certain that no large body of the enemy have gone to Poverty Bay as yet.