Kōrero: Mail and couriers

‘You have not written [for] a very long time’, wrote Thomas Buddle, the senior Wesleyan missionary in Auckland, to his fellow missionary James Buller in Kaipara, on 15 January 1845. Buddle’s letter, sent by the ship Strathisla, was written on two sheets of paper. The outer one was sealed with wax – the mark of the sealing wax is still visible beneath the (very brief) address. In his letter, Buddle asks for news of a possible attack on Auckland by Kaipara Māori.