FROM FAR NORTH.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 37, 13 February 1937, Page 11

FROM FAR NORTH.

CHILDREN'S VISIT.

EXCITING EXPERIENCE. FIRST TRAIN TRIP. Seventeen children, ranging from 12 to 14 years old, from some of the most isolated settlements in North Auckland, are to pay their first visit to the city next week on an excursion organised by "Peter Pan," editor of the Children's Section of the "Auckland Star."

The children are Lorna and Cherry McManus, of Ngataki; St.- Clair Ford and Nettie Hcthcrington, of Waihopo; Gladys and Lina Yerkovich, of Motutangi; Mervyn Padget and Marguerite Smith, of Tinopai; Marjorie Burrows, of Pukemii; Ada Morning, of Waibarara; Roger Herbert, of Kaeo; Rupert Coffin and Joan Adams, of Kohumaru; Matthew Poulson, of Broad wood j Rosie and Ivy Millward, of Lake Chia; and Joseph Boyce, of Koutu.

None of the children has ever seen a train, a tramcar or a big ship. Some of them, living at settlements accessible only by way of bush tracks, have never even seen a motor car or a building of more than one storey. Many of them will have to leave their homes to-morrow morning by cream lorry in order to reach Awanui, where Miss L. A. Wilkie, school teacher at Waingakau, will take charge of them. After spending the night at Awanui they will travel by service enr to the railway at Otiria, where they will be joined by others of the party; who will assemble at Kaikohe land Okailiau.

I The Minister of Railways, the Hon. D. G. Sullivan, lias granted the children the exclusive use of a first-class carriage at reduced rates on the Whangarei express, by which they are due at Auckland at r>J!O p.m. on Monday, when they will go straight to the homes at which they will be billeted, Afrembling at the 1

"Star" office at 9 a.m. the following day, they will'visit city business houses and later inspect the liner Awatea. At 12.30 p.m. they will he welcomed by the Mayor, Mr. Ernest Davis, at the Town Hail, after which they will spend the afternoon at Mission Bay. In the evening they will go to the pictures. Subsequent days will also be well filled with sightseeing trips, visits to factories, benches, the railway workshops, Zoo, Fire Brigade Station, Museum, radio station and aerodrome. The Atta Company has offered its services at reduced rates during the whole week, while Captain D. M. Allen, instructor at Mangere Aerodrome, wjll take each child for a flight over the city on Sunday.

Another little girl from.an isolated home in the Far North, Xoelene, is now paying her first visit to Auckland, under Peter Pan's auspices, and is spending a holiday of several weeks with a private family here.