"GOLLIWOG LADY"

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23127, 27 August 1938, Page 10

"GOLLIWOG LADY"

M INVALID'S HOBBY OVER 700 DOLLS MADE GIFTS TO SICK CHILDREN Propped up in bed in her cottage, 4 [Belmont Terrace, Remuera, a little old lady spends day after day making golli;wogs for She is Mrs. A. F. Boyce, ancP it has been her hobby and chief interest for the past four years. In that time she has made over 700 of the grotesque dolls, which she has given away to little folks in orphanages, hospitals, tho back-blocks and all jover the city. When Mrs. Boyce began this labour of love she was in comparatively good health, but for two years she has been ialmost entirely bedridden, and her hobby has thus become an invaluable pieans of passing tho time. Schoolgirls' Stockings Many friends supply her with the materials for tho dolls. The bodies, heads and limbs are mado from discarded black woollen stockings, stuffed with rag cut up into small pieces. Odd [pieces of fur provide shock-heads of Jiair, eyes and noses are buttons, and [the garments are of textile scraps, as bright-coloured as possible. Most of the ptockings come from tho Epsom Girls' jGranunar School, the pupils of which jvear out hundreds of tliern every year. Mrs. Boyce's golliwogs have gone to jchild patients in tho Auckland Hospital, through the Hospital Auxiliary, to Wilson Home and several of the .city free kindergartens. Others have ibeen distributed to poor children [through the Salvation Army, the Anglican. City Mission and tho Friendly (Road. iS'early every child in the maker's immediate neighbourhood has one, and every now and then her handiwork is brought in to her for running repairs. Mascot for a Band Not all tho golliwogs are given direct jto youngsters. Some have been auctioned for charity at "community tings" and one is the mascot of the Jargaville Mouth-organ Band, which performed at tho last Winter Exhibition. Another was acquired by the wife pf a visiting wrestler and is now in the United States. At present Mrs. [Boyce is making up a dozen to be sent to the leper settlement at Makogai. Occasionally Mrs. Boyce makes a •"fancy-dress" golliwog as a special gift. [Lately she completed one dressed as a | poster "pearly king," in a suit covered [with hundreds of pearl buttons. A grandmother herself, Mrs. Boyce iknows the ways of children well enough to be sure that nearly every one of her idolls will find a good home and an affectionate foster-parent. The young folk Sn her street, and their elders, too, seldom pass without waving a greeting to the old lady who can bo seen every iday sewing away at her bedroom window. The children call her "the GolliJwog Lady," and she is so known also to hundreds of youngsters whom she has pever seen.