McLean, D. Papers. Ms Papers 32:700B

To Henare Matua and Henare Tomoana:
Friends! Greetings to you both!

The notice that you (two) wrote on 8 February has arrived here, and your reminder to the tribes of the correct side here not to turn to McLean's plan which will destroy people or land, but to turn to your side.

I ask, which side is your side? Is your side a side of peade? And should you tell me, and (I) turn to the ends you desire, which you persist in, what is it that you persist in? What effect will you have? How many years have you stood as a member of Parliament? And which troubles of the milked East Coast tribes were healed by your working in your knowledge in the five years you stood in Parliament? And what information are you sending to return you again to your seat without policy in these many years that have passed? There you weep as you pronounce the many troubles you consider carefully, with ardour. In these days you keep to the right hand side, speaking emphatically to finish a jest carefully. Kakewhati used to say, 'Speaking emphatically is close to commanding'. It was a long while you stood, and so you were sluggish about the ends of your occupation.

Now, friends, what is the good of returning a man without policy to that house again? That is a lure of the people.

Ngaati Porou is a tribe of beaten kelp if the iron (strength) of the election weakens. That election was nullified which weakened the iron. Then they were elected again. The men who are beating are different. If the conduct of that election is good, then it should be a fixture each time.

Similarly, the man I set up as a member for our district. If the ornamentation of his carving is properly set up we are both satisfied; page 2if the ornamentation of his carving is badly made, when the fault is seen he will be trampled on. When the fault is seen, after only one year it should end, and a different man should stand.

If the rules are like this, the words you wrote to me are correct. We should be united, and then we two and our work should grow together. Now, friends, we were united before. You called to all these tribes to set about lashing our canoe together. The name of our canoe is Takitimu, as always agreed. It was lashed and completed, then it was thrust into the sea, and it landed at Wellington. That one was Tareha's. When he returned home, there was not even a bait caught, not anything for the children and the women. The women carrying calabashes were sobbing; the canoe was filled (with water?). The words of the incantation were spoken again. The laughter of the women quivered, confused about the wrong-doing. Then we two very carefully prepared the lashing of that canoe so that it would be strong to fight the great waves of the sea, and it was complete. That one was Karaitiana. Again it was thrust into the sea and it landed at Wellington. When it returned, in the many years it had not achieved anything. Some very rotten bait were caught.

Now, you did not write a reason for me to vote again for Karaitiana.

I have another canoe. My canoe's lashing is completed. It is lying above on the roller. In the many years you twisted in the keel, I thrust mine in the water and it filled with water inside. Then I knew you were a descendant of a lizard!¹

So, friends, (I) don't agree to vote for Karaitiana. No burden of his canoe was left to me. There were two things from his canoe which were indeed left to me: hate and ill-will with condemnation.

You say again I should vote in the Maori electorate. That electorate is not plain to me. Also, I do not know what the Maori electorate is. Before the ancestors the Maori had a different electorate. The page 3electorate in former times of the ancestors until before close to these times ended. Christianity cut it off and it ended. You will know that type of electorate of our ancestors. You know it too.

Now there is this, friends. I am voting in the Pakeha electorate, with the people who conduct the election and all the rules of this whole land under the authority of the good Queen, who is strong to repress evil so that good will grow for the Maori people and the pakeha people living in this land.

Concerning your words that I should vote again for Governor Grey.

Why? For the correctness of that man. He, Governor Grey is not the trouble at Waikato. Those men are consuming the scraps. He, Governor Grey is not the trouble at Kororareka in the Bay of Islands. Are you deaf? Obstinate?

Concerning your condemnation of McLean. Your condemnation is plain to you. It is not plain to me. This is the matter that is plain to me - his correct conduct, by which the whole land survives. Now perhaps you see the notice of Mohi Turei. You will look there and those few leading words of the man you condemn are repeated there. When you compare, they are the same as your leading words, which you live by.

Now, friends, I will not agree that you give those words of condemnation concerning McLean to this district. If this land, that is the people are troubled, that rests with you.

The wrong is not here. The wrong here is selling land, selling our own blocks from our ancestors. Neither will a chiefly man succeed in speaking out to the man selling land not to sell his block from his ancestors but instead that man's belongings are torn out. That is wrong.

Some wrongs that were carried out by that man should be carried out on you. Wiremu Hatere killed a man and he died. Orders were page 4given to repress it completely. Afterwards another man was killed, Poihipi Pakaku. It was another murder. Orders were again given to repress it.

Perhaps you will say it is for the Government to set that up; the majority will fall for those murders.

If the conduct concerning Tawhiao is indeed in the Government's hands, it is indeed in trouble now.

Because of his continuous strength and courage he succeeded in going to overgrown (remote) places. If that is so, who will do what? Will it be correct or not?