DEAR GIRLS AND BOYS:

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20496, 22 February 1930, Page 4 (Supplement)

DEAR GIRLS AND BOYS:

The " Open Letter" contest • has proved only tuo successful! I have sucli a pile of lettei-s on hand, all too good to be thrown away, that 1 am reluctantly compelled to declare the letterbox "full up" once more. Other items lia/c aiso • piled up, so please do not send any snore yet. This also applies to " Boys' Own," for which 1 have many interesting items awaiting publication. /" Our Own Corner" appeals once again to-day, and contains many interesting items. F am going to ask for a new design for thu heading soon, so will our artisi friends please put their clever brains and fingers to work? Ore important- point—the heading should be two columns wide, but should not lie much deeper than the one used 10-dav, ss we need the space for the items themselves. 'Xo more now. When you have all nettled down to school work once more, thej;e will be some more competitions, i'our friend.

' THE MAORI AXE. Dear Miss Morton,—l am going to tell you about a Maori axe which we picked up cn tho beach the other day. We v.-ere out for a walk arid we saw the axe lying nmong a lot of boulders. "VVa picked it u:> and looked at. if, but we did not think it was anything. It wus Marker and a different ehapo than tho other stones round it so I carried it home After tea I took ;t to Dad and showed it I" Mim. Ho at once Raid it was a Maori HT.e. Wo were very Mirprised indeed. Dad waid thiit the Maoris must have gone down .1 o the beach to fish 'fuid left it there and that the waves initbt havo buried it under the sand. It has got some chips out of it but otherwise it is quite whole. .Dad says that it must bo more thun a hundred years old. it is eight inches lons and just three wide Jit tho widest end I'- is one and a. hull" $ riches thick. It is black in colour and very smooth, The siny,.!' end is rounded so :t ran be held comfortably, 'the Maoris used | to hold it by the small round end and «11 by scraping it towards them .Sometimes they tied a stick with tlax on to the small end and used t" <li'-r the banio way us when 1 hey had no slick. The big end 13 quite i-hnrp bu! (here, are chips on it. From Hester Jforrick, Tuataiie, iferbertville, ('Age 1.5). "WITH SHOES IN HAND." Dear Miss Morton, —About n month ago I first realised that this line—"'do, and carry jour shoes in your hand and bow your head /on your breast"--iroin Hudyard Killing's eelebratcd Kitchener'* School. applied, not only to the poor ignorant i 1 n'>h!ico:« in the .Sudan; but also to a great many holidaymakers in Auekhn.d. During the /ir.-:t weel: of my stay at I, , in the Wiiitnkere l'angcs. it would have been madness tor me 1o have ventured out of doors with shoes on. Consequently, whenever I was invited hi >.pend an afternoon or an evening at. a 'friend's bneh, J always plodded—or lather waded—lhvoujfli the mud. carrying my ihoe:" in my hand. On reselling my destination, ! I was usually greeted tit the door with a bucket of warm water and a towel, with which to wash tlie mud from my feet and logs. That done, 1 was at liberty to put on i/iy shoes. J know it is an iiueient custom of tJie Orientals to remove their shoes before enterii:;. a temple or a friend's house, but in the ease of Auckland picnickers at the beginning of last, month, the custom whs reversed, Nov.- (hat 1 am back in civilisation I mlist try to forget the barbaric Bttvngea of tho holidays and accustom myself 1n school lessons and lniiHic practice. 1 do not think I nhail succeed very well!— Your sincere pen-friend. Marcarct Harvey, ]l, Duart Ave.. Jit. Albert (11 years).

" LETTERBOX CORNER " CLOSED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE