DEDICATED TO THE MOTHERS OF THE WORLD

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 267, 10 November 1934, Page 2 (Supplement)

DEDICATED TO THE MOTHERS OF THE WORLD

THEIR LOVE IS THE GREATEST OF ALL GIFTS. Dear Boys and Girls, — From the WaUal(ere Ranges, that long low range which shelters Auckland from the Tasmans blast, comes a story which I delight in passing on to all my readers. Mother love is the same the world over; no fire which burns has a greater intensity or displays more singleness of purpose than the unquenchable flame which causes the mothers of the world to love and cherish their babies; which causes them to fight and to suffer for them. This intensity of love is even more marked in the animal kingdom, which brings me to my story. 1 Was returning to the city by car one night, , ' writes my correspondent, "and just as I rounded a bend on the brow of the range my lights picked out a moving object a chain ahead. Slowing up the car I focused the lights on the object, and, to my amazement, saw an opossum and her baby. Instead of bounding to safely, the little mother Was stretched as flat as possible on the roadway whilst her baby climbed slowly on to her back. Then, when baby was safely aboard, Mrs. 'Possum scampered to the safety of the roadside, the little one clinging like a leach. My mind Went back to the story of Rau-whato, the Maori mother of Taupo, who, with her baby pillowed upon her back, swam five miles through the ice-cold lake to save her tiny son from the raiders' club." . And so I thank the k'mdly grown-up who thought sufficient of his /£?} mother to write and ask me to tell you all to take from his story an apprecia- S*T) I^^^HLf^^^'^^''^ lion of the great love which a mother bears her child, and to ask you to do C\if)A&& your best to prove yourselves worthy of this greatest of all gifts. tJJ^^^'^ CLUB CAPTAIN.