at any rate hold aloof from this Pai Marire movement. This will also
force other tribes, who might have been willing to join in a general
movement, to stand neutral, and I think now, that although we may have a
great deal of trouble with Te Ua's followers, we may regard any absolute
danger to the European population of the island as past.

"There may, I fear, be isolated massacres, for the Hau-Haus, with their
cutting off of heads and carrying them about, have introduced an
entirely new and savage feature into Maori warfare. I was inclined to
think the precautions you and Atherton are taking were rather
superfluous, but after this I shall certainly adopt them myself.
Everything is perfectly quiet here, but when we see how readily a whole
tribe embrace the new religion as soon as a prophet arrives, and are
ready at once to massacre a man who had long dwelt among them, and for
whom they had always evinced the greatest respect and liking, it is
impossible any longer to feel confident that the natives in this part of
the country are to be relied upon as absolutely friendly and
trustworthy.

"I am sorry now that I have been to some extent the means of inducing
you all to settle here. At the time I gave my advice things seemed
settling down at the other end of the island, and this Hau-Hau movement
reached us only as a vague rumour, and seemed so absurd in itself that
one attached no importance to it."

"Pray do not blame yourself, Mr. Mitford; whatever comes of it we are
delighted with the choice we have made. We are vastly more comfortable
than we had expected to be in so short a time, and things look
promising far beyond our expectations. As you say, you could have had no
reason to suppose that this absurd movement was going to lead to such
serious consequences. Indeed you could have no ground for supposing that
it was likely to cause trouble on this side of the island, far removed
as we are from the scene of the troubles. Even now these are in fact
confined to the district where fighting has been going on for the last
three or four years--Taranaki and its neighbourhood; for the Wanganui
River, although it flows into the sea in the north of the Wellington
district, rises in that of Taranaki, and the tribes who became Hau-Haus
and came down the river had already taken part in the fighting with our
troops. I really see no reason, therefore, for fearing that it will
spread in this direction."

"There is no reason whateve