Your Hobby

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22367, 2 April 1938, Page 5 (Supplement)

Your Hobby

Studying Birds My hobby is a ,very interesting one. It is.studying birds. This winter I have a bird feeding station.

I have many birds which come to it. I have a food tray and four suet boxes which.l made. On my hanging tray I have put an oatmeal box from which the food automatically comes out of a hole at the bottom, as the bird pecks at it. In the food hopper I put a mixture of popcoi^i

and bread. I also mut out in jars cooked oatmeal, cooked rice, and sunflower seeds. Shelled peanuts are also enjoyed by our bird friends. I keep my suet boxes full and many birds come to them. —LOUISE ROBINSON (aged 14), Dunkirk, N.Y. My Library I have many hobbies, but I think the one that interests me most is reading. In my bedroom I ViWt ttoxee book, cases full of books, and I call them my library and

lend them to my. friends. I have pot many books of my favourite authoress, Angela Brazil, but I get some of hers from the _ public library. I also like learning to cook. —NOLA STILLWELL (aged 12), Halswell. Mother Helps My hobby is stamp collecting. I have been collecting stamps for more than two years, and I am very interested in them. I have 1600 stamps from all over the world. ,1 have written to South Africa. Fiji, and Canada, and I am hoping to receive answers soon. If I am lucky enough to hear from these countries I will be able to extend my collections of South African, Fijian and Canadian stamps. I have a perr-friend in Australia to whom .1 have been writing for about a year.

Mother, who is a stamp collector, writes to a very keen philatelist who lives in England. I receive some of the stamps he sends, antf as he sends more ■ than 50 stamps at a time my collection mounts up fairly quickly. —JOHN BATCHELOR, M.G, <£• . .(aged 11), Rotherham.

“My Hobby is Alive” My hobby is pets. I have 10 pet lambs, one black pony, and two black and white dogs. I have also a pet hen called Shirley. My pets

are the only things I have to play with, because I have no brothers and sisters. I had a lovely white Angora rabbit, and I think I am going to get a black rabbit. —LEATH McGRATH, A.B. (aged 10),. View Hill, Oxford. - “I Like Sewing” My favourite hobby is sewing. I have always taken a great interest in sewing at school and at home. On a sunny afternoon I like to gather up my sewing and take a chair and cushion and sit under a spreading tree. There I sit per-, haps for hours at plain sewing or fancy work. I also like dressing dolls, and this year I am going to ask mother to buy me some little dolls to dress to send in for the Christmas Mission. —PEARL WALL (aged 12),) Springston, Scrap Books My hobby is making scrap books. I make them of brown paper, I have two “big ones in\\ «•! Sb-vclev Temple pictures. In one I have a

card with Shirley’s own hand Friting which she sent me when wrote to her some time ago. —NANCY HAMILTON (aged ID), Tai Tapu. “I Like Swimming”

My favourite hobby is sport, especially swimming and tennis. We

have had a great deal of swimming at school this season, as it has been so hot. I think we are very lucky to be able to have our own baths, and to be able to go in for life-saving examinations. I have also a stamp collection of more than 500 stamps, and I like

animals, especially horses, very much. —’MATE BILLABONG, A. 8., L.8.H., Papanui.

Quite a Few I have quite a few hobbies. One of the best is reading. I like reading schoolgirls’ books, especially those written by Ethel Turner, Christine Chaundler, and Bessie Marchant. I also collect autographs. In rhy autograph book I have the signatures of Australian footballers and

tennis players; 1936 and 1937 All Blacks; world-famous wrestlers, and the Springboks. I save stamps with my brother and altogether we have a valuable collection which we have stuck in an album. I save cigarette cards, too. I have 71 large number and some very nice sets, I find all my hobbies interesting, They keep me busy through the holidays. —’MATE LYNETTE, A.B. (aged 12)), New Brighton. My Pictures I have many pictures of the King and Queen and the Princesses. I have also several badges. —BARBARA DUCKMANTON.

“I Collect Goins” I have some old coins which my grandfather gave to me when I was small. Two are half-crowns made in George IV’s reign. They are 113 years old, and have been in circulation in the reigns of seven English sovereigns. I have also a penny issued about the same time, and Britannia can still be seen on the. front of it. I have two old French coins minted in the reign of Napoleon 111, dated 1856 and 1863 respectively. They are a five and 10 centimes coins. I also have an American dime dated 1851. —’MATE LONG JOHN SILVER, Ashburton. History Stories I like story books that are half history books, especially if- they tell about “the Knights of Old”

like “The Talisman” and “Ivanhoe." j This is my hobby, and I enjoy it , very much. , —’MATE LYNETTE, A.B. < New Brighton.

An Unusual Hobby • My favourite hobby is collecting pieces of material. I have collected 300 different ones. I have exchanged some with other collectors.

My pen-friends in Canada and England have sent me some very pretty samples. In my collection I have silks, satins, taffetas, organdies, prints, velvets, and many other kinds. I cut my pieces of material into squares of various sizes, according to the size of the design on them, and hand-sew a tiny hem round each to prevent them from fraying. At present I have my specimens packed in a box, but I have made

a book and am going to stitch them all in it, so they will not be lost. —’MATE PRIMROSE Caged 14), Hawarden, A Stamp Collector I have a great variety of stamps Irom all over Wit -wovVi. The. stamp I treasure most is a 2Jd one with a drawing of King Edward's head on it. I also have a Id and lid of the same king. _ . When collecting stamps it is important to see that they are not torn in any way. If all the postage mark is on them they will be more valuable. —MADGE TAYLOR, A. 8.. L.B.H. (aged 11), Te Pirita.

OTIRA GORGE To visit Otira Gorge you leave Otira about half-past 11 for Arthur’s Pass by train, as it is easier to walk from Arthur’s Pass. You reach Arthur’s Pass about 12 o’clock, then start for the gorge. , There are wonderful views in the gorge, which make it very interesting. Half-way up there is a monument to Sir Arthur Dudley Dobson, which has just recently

been erected there. There is a large green house tor trampers. Nearing Otira you come across some Public Works camps. The men there are putting the electric light towers over the hill. Further on you come to a hotel and a garage. Soon after this you arrive at the Otira settlement, which is not very large. - '—’MATE GLEAMING RATA. _ Otira,