WEEKLY NEWS CHRISTMAS NUMBER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 10837, 22 August 1898, Page 6

WEEKLY NEWS CHRISTMAS NUMBER.

« PRIZE COMPETITION. '";'," PIONEERING ADVENTURES IN NEW ' ZEALAND. V\s|fl Although this year's Christmas number of the Auckland Weekly News will include many new and attractive features calculated, ' we confidently predict, to still further" enhance the high reputation of this widely-cir-culated annual issue, the Prize Competition which has hitherto proved 'so popular,'and in which all classes of readers have taken so \ keen an interest, will be retained. The sub-: ject selected for competitors to exercise their literary skill and fertile fancy upon this year, as well as to bring to light, we hope, 'soma of the unrecorded personal incidents in con- " nection with the early history of the settlement of the colony, is" Pioneering Adventures in New Zealand." If adventures be to the adventurous, as Lord Beaconsfield some-; '• where declares, there ought to be no lack of --'•■' material to draw upon in this colony, whose '■ - pioneer settlers were nothing if not adven- ". turous. The new land to which they came' was then little known, and almost wholly ;\ unprovided with the resources of civilisation, ' Hardships, dangers, and endurance had to be' - faced by these sturdy, self-reliant pioneers. '. New experiences awaited them, and un- ■ imagined difficulties. And their adventures! , What thrilling episodes, what strange situations, what tragedy, what pathos, and at' times what humour were crowded into their ■ ..■ lives in those bygone days! The stories of y those times have not' yet all been told, and '•'■', perhaps never will, for the survivors are few, and are constantly growing fewer, and the vividness of the first impression is becoming , dimmed by time's effacing finger. But every ■', ' homestead has its budget of these pioneering.: adventures, stranger in many instances than ' fiction, and often of a night, " , W&s: When the oldest cask is opened, M^& And the largest lamp is lit; When the'chestnuts glow in the emteri And the kid turns on the suit; ." When young and old in circles Around the firebrands close, r | With weeping and with laughter, it'may hi, still are these stories told of the brave days of old. We hope that our competitors will; : ,; vie with each other' in telling them for the Christmas number of the Auckland Weekly ■'."'■ I News, in .which case the competition should ' i eclipse in interest all its predecessors, 't i The competitions must be written on one".'-: . side only of the paper; they must not exceed - ;. 2500 words; and they must be addressed to . " The Competition Editor, Weekly 1 News J.' : Office, Auckland," in time to reach him not /. • , later than September 1. Each competition ' should bear a nom de plume, and be accom- ' j panied by a sealed envelope (with the nom de'■;;■: plume written on the outside) containing the name and address of the writer, and, if the ; MSS. is desired to be returned in the event of its not being allotted a prize or published, ? sufficient stamps for that purpose. ;- v V\First Prize £5 5 3 • Second Prize 3 3. : ■':• Third Prize 22