A Letter from Alice . . .

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 7 December 1940, Page 9

A Letter from Alice . . .

Dear Boys and Girls, Alice was sitting in the coolness of the bush up the Maitai Valley the other day, just thinking, when she noticed all the little bush birds hopping round her. She wasn’t making a noise, and a cheeky little robin was watching her very curiously from a fallen tree trunk, while two fantails were twittering and flirting on a puta-puta-weta tree nearby. The sight of the fannies and the robins hopping round so companionably reminded Alice of an old Maori story she once heard. She wrote it out there and then. * * * * Maui, great hero god of the Maoris, was once very tired and thirsty, for he had just returned from snaring the sun, thus making the days longer than they had been before. He was always doing good turns to mortals on earth, and was resting after this particular one in the shade of the bush. He was dreadfully thirsty, but too tired to move, so asked his friends the birds, who always knew where the water was, to go and bring him some. First he called the stitch bird (Hihi), who took no notice, but angrily called “Stitch, stitch, stitch” from the holes of the trees into which he was prying. Maui then took Hihi and threw him into the fire, where his feathers were burnt, and their colour changed into the golden green so prized for decoration. Then Maui asked the little Robin (Toutouwai) to take pity on him, but. hopping and pecking among the leaves at his feet, Toutouwai took no notice either. So poor thirsty Maui took the bird which was tamely perching nearby and placed a streak of white near its beak, as a mark of rudeness. Have you ever noticed the little streak, boys and girls? At last Maui asked the blue-wattled crow (Kokako) (wattles are those little things that hang down under some birds’ beaks) to take pity on him. The beautiful dark bird hopped immediately to the stream, filling its wattles with sparkling water, which Maui drank. And so that the crow might always be able to move quickly, because it alone of the bush birds had been kind to him, Maui caught hold of it as it stood there shaking the drops of water from its blue wattles, and pulled the bird’s legs, first one and then the other, until they were much longer than before. So now the crow can always move and glide through the forest more quickly than before, just because it was kind. It always pays to be kind, I think, even if you don’t get a reward, as the crow did. * * * * Don’t forget the summer page competitions, members. We are all waiting at the office with envelope-openers and scissors to delve into the piles of letters we are expecting. Cheerio till next week, ALICE.