OUR PEN-FRIENDS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20526, 29 March 1930, Page 4 (Supplement)

OUR PEN-FRIENDS.

dear boys and GIBLS: I found a big pile of letters and other items awaiting me when I peeped into my. office one day this week, and will reply to them through the Mail Bag as soon as possible. Tho entries in tho sketch and illustrated letter contests have | not beec so numerous as usual, so the I time for both will be extended for a fortnight, and five-shilling prizes awarded for the illustrated otters, as well as the sketch competition. ' . The " Stamp uorner has met with en- ■ thusiastic support, and no doubt many readers will be interested in the items , published to-day. _ ,• ■-n Although no special competition \\in be held, readers may now send in sketches or items of any kind suitable for our Easter and Anzac Pages. Love to you all, from ' Jour friend, TIM TAKES AN OUTING. Dear Miss Morton,-I am going to tell you about a trip we had to Tauranga t week. We got fnr.shed up about nmo o'clock, and came into the house to f,et ready. Mother said. " Are we going Tim, the pup, with us?' Dad said, -No. ' he will only be a pest if we take him Tim must have known we were _ talking about him because he took hold of his brush mid ran outride with it as much as to say ht was going to brush his hair and go. Ui course vie all laughed. Mother said that "we will have to take him with us." I then had to and comb him and put on his little red ribbon. nil left home about half past ten for Tauran;rn, and arrived there about half past eleven. While we were having lunch Master Tim wandered off on his own and found his way into tho kitchen and they were all so taken up with him that they gave him some cooked meat. After lunch v.c went around the streets, and about three o'clock we went into a shop to get some things we needed. While we were doing this. Tim slipped away from us. We hunted high and low for him every--1 where and at last lie camo striding out of a draper's shop. We then hurried homeward, but unfortunately we had a puncture. We arrived homo very tired, but happy.— I am, your loving pen-friend, Joyce S. Podmore, Highfield, Katikati, R.D., Bay of Plenty. AT THE HOT SPRINC3. Dear Miss Morton,—l am going to tell you about a trip we took lately. Dad ; took us in the car to the Hot Springs at Okarairo" which is 21 miles from our home. Mother and my sister packed our lunches, and we left home at 10 a.m. wending our way over a very winding road to tho WaiJcato River. After crossing the river, we went ud the main road to Rotorua for some miles as far as Tirau and stopping there, we all Spt an ice ■ criim while dad got benzine in he car, then came the last three miles to the Hot Springs, where we arrived a few minutes after eleven. We had some "•ames of tennis on the Deau V ful hardcourts, and were then ready ' cold Shower jteSard M & w'Jand after a walk around, we lcff. at 3.30 pom. for our homeward jounrney. going by v y of tho Hot Springs Station, through the Hinuera Valley, with its beautiful farms and such a lot of hay was cut. We reached home at 5 p.m., to ? nd hero from Auckland, and this was the wind-up to a teal, happy day.r-From your pen-friend, Gilbert Cooper, Manngatautari. (Age 10 years,).

THE CORRESPONDENCE SCHOOL. Dear Miss Morton—Last year my brother and I gained our Proficiency Certificates through the Correspondence School. We had been taught by the Correspondence School for two years, till then wo wore taught by our grandmother a retired school teacher. Tho Correspondence School was started in 1922 for a few " way-back" settlers' children. It is now one of the largest schools ia New Zealand having nine hundred to a thousand pupils. They have both primary and secondary pupils. Tho secondary school was started last February. Children from all sorts of aueer, •" out-of-the-way" places are taught by this wonderful school. Some only get their mail six times a year and many aro light-housekeepers children. The work is set out in fortnightly sets, tho exact work for_ a whole fortnight is set out hero; when it is done it has to be roturned for correction. If there are errors they have to bo corrected and sent to the school again. Examinations may be sat for at tho nearest school or it the childrens' homes. For those sitting at homo tho papers are sent out in large envelopes marked on the outside and they must not be opened until the pupils aro ready to work Jnem. The school has a largo library and the upper standards choose a new book each time they return one. To the lower standards suplementary readers are sent out encn month. The school has an annual magazine called " Postman" it is filled with articles, stories, verses, and drawing done by pupils and ex-pupils.—l am, your loving pen-friend, Lucy Eyers, Rangiriri. (Ago 15.). , MY STAMP ALBUM. I have a lovely stamp album which has twelvo hundred and seventy-four stamps in it, most of which are of a very rare kind, and when they were bought a long time ago some of them cost a good deal of money. When I was looking over tho collcction of stamps I saw an old £yassa stamp which has a picture of a giraffe eating the leaves of a date palm tree, and in one comer there is a man's head and a shield is in the other. This old stamp album is always very interesting and especially on a wet day when there is nothing much to do. On co my stamp album belonged to n former Mayor of Auckland.—l remain, your lovinp pen-friend, Beatrico Morton, Boundary. Road, Waihi. FOND OF PEACHES. 1 read with interest Philip's letter about tho dog eating grapes. We had a dog that was fond of penches. He has been seen standing up picking peaches, off the lower branches of trees. He loved apples, too. He always took at least one apple n day out of the applo shed and crunched it all up.—Yours truly, Doris Hill, WEenuapai, Letters. Sketches, Poems, etc., received from: Edith Allan, .1. 11. Push, Kathleen O'Cailagluin. Nannie Wallace, John Smith. Jean McNeil, Hugh Fleming, Zola le Vaillant. Joan Gannaway. Joyce Jackson, Eileen and Nellie Ga;rett, Marjorie Burell. Betty Rollett. Marjorie Kuhtz, Joyce MolTait, Loma Shepherd. Rogers Naylor, Joan Mason. Olwyn Kutherford, Patricia Bodley, Mavis Padget, Ernest Clarke, Kay and Thelma Millett, Thyra Renall. Nancy Jones, Thebna Churches, Betty Molesworth. Gerald SoiiEter. Dulci-3 Johnston, Una Henderson. Mary Whitton, Annie Mountfort, Iris Bradley, Madgo Dis'.ie, Viola Christian and Hester Herrick.

Closing Date for Illustrated Letter and Indian Ink Sketch Contests extended to April 12. FiveShilling Cash Prizes.