LETTER-BOX CORNER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19508, 11 December 1926, Page 4 (Supplement)

LETTER-BOX CORNER.

All kinds of interesting things to read nbout this week, boys and girls! It is getting very hard to |)ick the prizewinners. A cordial welcome to all my new pen-friends, and I hope you will write me many more nice letters! In ray mail this morning was a nice letter from Alison, who won the prize last week, asking me to keep the five shillings as a donation for the Christmas Sleigh. Many thanks, Alison, for your kmdly thought. A dear little/letter from t'aul wins the prize for the " under nines " this week. I expect a lot of you will want to make Christmas Trees for the birdies now, but of course, they do not need them hero so much as in cold countries where food is scarce in winter.

Prize next week for the best boy's letter, 10 to 16. Now then, boys, look to your laurels! Or are yon, as -one writer suggests to-day, only reading the girls' letters?

Dear Miss Morion, —I have not written to you before but I thought I would tell you about our bunnies and birds. I am (seven and in Std. 11. In our rock garden there i® a bunny hole. I looked out of my bedroom window and I saw three baby bunnies nibbling the grass. They were very' small, perhaps a week old. v\e sometimes try to catch them with _ some airing across the hole. Every morning 1 hear the birds singing sweet songs. bird. I think says, "Did he do it? Did he do it?" lie like 3to eat worms. One night I' caught a tin full of worms and hung them outside on a tree. Next morning they had all gone, but I don't know if they crawled away, or the bird eat them. "We are going to give the birds a surprise next Xmas, I«am going to make a Xmaa tree and. bang crumbs and worms all over the tree. Don't, you think that will _be nice? I am going to tell you what biras might come; the thrushes and sparrows and the little white-eyes. We think that they will come, because we feed them every morning. They are very tame and we want them. to come into our hands. Sometimes I try to whistle like the thrush on the front .lawn* but it does not sound right. Mummy says it does not sound right because I don't eat worms and the thrushes do and I wonder if I eat worms would I be able to sing like them?— From Paul Turner, The Vicarage, Matamata (age 7.)

Dear Miss Morton.—We had a children's fancy dress ball' here last week and my brother Avent as a Golliwog and I went as an Eastern lady, but I must tell you how we got there. Where we live io very swampy land and with all the rain we have had it was all flooded,, and so we could not get out to the main road. Wo live' 1 about a mile back from the main road, eoMho day of the ball, daddy mado a big sledge aud .he yoked two horses in and took ua in that, aud then he came back for us at half past twelve. I did not like it because J was frightened of the water and it was dnrk. but we got home safe, I always save the pictures of "Bib and Bub that are in the Hehaxd on Saturdays and I think May Gibb muat b<! a jolly lady to think of Buch a lot of funny pictures. A month ago I was down 4 -the - paddock and I found eight wild dufcfc e&ga. I brought them home and my brother put them under a broody hen we had and yesterday morning I went out to look;at' her and there were eight dear little ducks ~in the nest. I will close now, wishing you a very Happy Christmas.—From Joy<;e Ganderton, Ohinewai (age 9.) (That wa3 an. esciting ride! You must enter for the Bib and Bub painting competition, Joyce.) — ;

Dear, Miss. Morton, —I am. writing to-day to ask yon to accept me as. one of your penfriends. Mother allows me to read your articles in; the supplement and I particularly enjoyed your last about the Maori pa at Pupakura. The country round hero is • full of historic interest and our old farm, house, which was partly built by my greatgrandfather before the Maori war, i 3 very interesting indeed.. Joining the front corner of the farm is _ a hill face, then called Williams' Clearing, a .military camp of the Imperial troops during the war. My father can remember an old Maori grave in'a little gully just below this-clearing and quite close to the new deviation of the Main Highway. This Maori was shot when they: attacked the soldiers who were cutting bush round the camp. The soldiers at Williamson's clearing carved a slab on which was a Maori's head and below the first verse of the Psalm. /'Why do the heathen rage ?" \Thi:» old' slab fell down about .1(5 years ago and got lost. I think it is pity it had not been'preserved. Still, when 'my father ploughed this paddock numbers of these soldiers' old bullets were picked - up. Just below Williamson's Clearing are three puriri trees left standing hv the • Boldiers who called the trees " The sentinels." Theise trees are, unfortunately. dying but years ago when Bishop Selwyn used to walk to Wellington and hack he always camped under the treea on the fifst night out from Auckland and the last'night on his return journey. About .two--miles away at the back of the old farm is the little church where the; Maoris at'.tssked the..soldiora 'during the war and. the bullet holes; con still be seen in the old building. Hoping you find my letter interesting, I remain your loving little penfriend, Olwyn Rutherford (age 12.) (A most- interesting letter, Olwyn. Write again.)-

Dear Miss Morion, —Every Saturday I read the different letters printed in your " Lcitterbox Comer." It interests me very much, arid ■ I would love to become one of your "pen-friends." • I belong to the North Shore Girl: Guides, and,-as we are going to Clevedon South to camp, I am very excited. Wouldn't you be, if it was your first time? Clevedon is a very pretty place in North Auckland. It will be a lovely site for cvup and I think we will .have , a lovely time, bathing, hiking and picnicing, .Dear- Miss Morton,—l hope the little ones, who take , the "Cottage by. the Sea" (which you, mentioned in the "Children's Page ") will have the loveliest time, playing on the golden sands, or hunting for shrimps in the cleur green pools, I will now close with love from your new pen-friend, Moya Jonas, Devonport (age 15.)

Dear Miss Morton,—l think the letterbox corner is lovely. I am going to tall you about being in the Opotiki Hospital. I went in about eight o'clock at night. "When I got there everything seemed so strange. There were no patients in the ward I was in. I had rheumatic fever and having fallen o2 my horse on my way home from school one night knocked my leg. I was fretting better from the fever when my leg began, to swell through the knock forming an abscess oil the bone. There was a lovely matron. She and the nurses were kind to me; and. Oh. such a kind doctor. I am home again and mother is curing me with sea. water. I. can walk a little now. I did not know 'iiow lovely it was to be able to walk before I got ill—With best wishes from Frances Bramley (age 11.) ' (Poor Frmees!. I do hope the leg will soon be well sgjtin.) -——* Dear .Miss Morton, —I have some rather peculiar pels;. they are three baby starlings I found a neat m the beams of the roof "of ouf ' v/aiih-house with four eggs in it and a .faw -days Inter three little birds were hatched. They were such funny little thing 3 with yellow pieces each side of their mouth, .which makes their mouth very hi" and they have fluff on their heads which looks like a top-knot. Every day I climb up and J;iko one out of the nest and make a tweetihg noise kke its mother does then it opens its mouth wide and I drop a'wemi ai, I also h&ye a pet little dog called IS lgger.-rWith best wishes from Jp.,,, Mcintoaa (age 9.)

Dear M:bs Morton, —I thought you would to hear about our dance recital. It was:a great success. It started with an'oldfashioned scene which was beautifully "ar**nged. The girls in it wore lovely white V:ga and danced' to the sort music of Mozart's • Minuet, and when the modern Kirl, dressed to represent ragtime, entered kicking her legs up to her head, the people al! turned away shocked. Several items followed in succession. A short interval and. then a dance story, titled Flirtation. Then cjunc a. beautiful ice carnivah by night \v:ith snow fallins softly down. Well as time is flying, I will conclude with beat, wishes.—Beverly McCracken, Fraction I age 10.;

Dear Miss Morton,—Seeing so many children writing to you I thought I would like lo tell you aoout my garden. During warm days of summer it is a mass of beautiful colour. In it I have some sweet peas, two roses and four pansy plants, which tire just coming into bloom. I also have sonic violets, wall-flowers, and aster plant and some zinnias. In another garden 1 had a. bed of daffodils which looked very Pretty in early spring. Now I must close. —--from Linley Walker, Ellerslie (age 8.)

Dear Mias Morton,—As I - have been at tHn, n £S or M a( :' liOC>l , a , !l week with a wiiif I t-u ? ? have no one to play the lif4^ 1 w ould like to write to exciilnr tor oX t r^® r ' *^ e have -had a most setting J-l ok °f ■■ earthquakes. We are thought t ' a ? Tn no Y- We little Jv e but we had two walla Bchonl one , of ihe t-.lcs a:tsd plrncv vLrf ,V ecn . CT acl«d, and We nro -not j fallen .from the roof Our monument, whici? 1 7 near llie v, ' a " of. damage! Is?v are , Prond loll.aown they lniLdc 1.U.0 the raof.—From' t' T noise on vifie Moroni writing to Co poer, Bettv t i? ea ' ■;C.I BJ® fllzjto