“How much of the buoyancy of hope has been sobered down by experience! when instead of a nation of believers welcoming me as their father, I find here and there a few scattered sheep, the remnant of a flock which has forsaken the shepherd. I do not know how far it is right to go among my people, though, in former times, peace or war made no difference in their willingness to receive me. At present we are the special objects of their suspicion and ill will. The part that I took in the Waikato campaign has destroyed my influence with many. You will ask then ‘Did I not foresee this? and if so why did I go?’ I answer that I could not neglect the dying and wounded soldiers. Then there were many wounded Maoris brought in from time to time to whom it was my duty to minister. Add to this two of our mission stations had been occupied by a native clergyman and catechist, whom no threats could induce to leave their posts after the English missionaries were advised to retire. It was my duty to see they were not injured when our troops advanced.... This has thrown me back in native estimation more, I fear, than my remaining years of life will enable me to recover.... In the midst of these sorrows we have solid comfort in the sight of the stability of our native clergymen who have never swerved from their duty.... The real cause of war in New Zealand has been the new constitution, and the cause of the greater bitterness of the strife has been the new element of confiscation introduced by the colonists against the will and express orders of the Home Government.... A Maori cares more for his land than anything else.... We have every reason to think that the worst is now past.... We shall probably settle down upon the unsatisfactory basis of the questionable possession of one or two millions of very indifferent land, and of the entire repudiation of the Queen’s authority over the whole interior of the Northern Island. This is the result of seeking first ‘the other things’ instead of the ‘one.’” The war was drawing to a close in 1864 when Bishop Hobhouse, after accompanying Selwyn on one of his journeys to the camp, wrote the following description of what he saw: