Children’s Column

Putaruru Press, Volume XI, Issue 510, 23 February 1933, Page 3

Children’s Column

FOR YOUNG PUTARURU FOLK. Motto For The Week: Let’s make the best of what is here, For where there’s shadows there is sun. Dear Girls and Boys,— This week I am going to tell you of a new kind of tree. This tree is the “ Correspondent’s Tree.” Now, the idea is this: Every member is a “ Leaf ” until they have written me five letters; then they become a “ Bud then after three more letters the “ Bud ” becomes a “ Flower,” and then five more letters changes the “ Flower ” into a “ Fruit.” The “ Fruit ” of this special tree is a bit of a mystery until one of you become one; then, ! What do you think " of this idea? Won’t it be interesting watching who will be the first Bud, Flower or Fruit? This week I am publishing a list of all the Leaves and how many letters each has written. Get busy, all of you; some have only a few letters to write to become a Bud! I also hope to have to write down lots of new Leaves. This time I’m going to tell you about the tuatara. New Zealand is the only place in which it is found. The tuatara looks like a large lizard, but it is really a lizard, crocodile, turtle and bird all in one. They used to be quite plentiful in this country; now they are found only on small islands round the coast. They live, like rabbits, in holes and burrows, and may sometimes be found sharing sea birds’ scooped-out holes. The mother tuatara places her ten to | fifteen white, rubber-like eggs in a hole and covers them with leaves to keep them moist, then goes off to live in comfort in another hole. Her eggs hatch out by themselves, but they take oh! so long to turn into baby tuataras. About thirteen months it really takes, so it is rather lucky that the mother does not have to sit on them! She would get rather tired, I expect. The babies dig themselves out of the holes and catch flies for their first meal. They love to lie for hours in warm pools. The little ones grow very, very slowly. twelve months old they are still small babies. They grow slowly, but live longer than a man. A fullgrown tuatara is fifteen or sixteen inches long. He has a scaly skin, greenish-brown in colour, spotted with yellow. If a young one loses its tail in a fight is is quite able to grow another. He is a lazy thing, spending most of his time sleeping ! or “ sun-bathing.” He is very slow to move. He has trouble in catching live snails, slugs, insects and spiders. He is more active at “ night, though. It is perhaps lucky that it can go for months without food. Above all the lazy thing only asks to be left undisturbed, so that he may, in peace and warmth, be left to live his lazy life. Have any of you seen one of these creatures? I have - once. These past sunny days will, no doubt, have tempted many of you in swimming again. I hate to think of the time when Jack Frost will be visiting us again. I’m still waiting for more letters, riddles, poems or anything of interest for our columns. Love from ' JILL.

BIRTHDAY GREETINGS. Many happy returns of the day to Bonny O’Connor and Joan Hutchings, from Jill. LEISURE. What is this life if full of care We have no time to stand and stare, No time to stand beneath the boughs, And stare as long as sheep and cows. - : No time to see in broad daylight Streams full of stars, like stars at night; No time to turn at Beauty’s glance And watch her feet, how they can dance. No time to wait till her mouth can Enrich that smile her eyes began. A poor life this if, full of care, We have no time to stand and stare. —W. H. Davies. LIMERICKS. There was a young person of Pinner Who had nothing to eat for her dinner, For supper and tea The same diet had she, And got thinner, and thinner, and thinner. certain wise man, it is written, absence of mind badly bitten, Made two holes in his door Where but one was before, To admit his pet cat and her kitten.

! MY CORRESPONDENTS. Below are all my correspondents. One has become our first Bud. She is Betty Lowe. I wonder if you will be the first Flower, Betty ? The numbers are the number of letters each has written. The names without a number have written once:— Buds. Betty Lowe (5). Leaves. “ Bobbie,” Valda Bartley, Zita Brown, Betty Beck (2), Joan Brown (2), Susy Baldwin, Celia Blaker (4), Alfred Barlow (2), Owen Barnett (2), Pauline Bernstein (3), Cushla Casey, Joan Clarkin, Jackie Caulfield, Dora Cranswick (3), Merle Clover, Phil Cranston, Zena Duck, Sonia Deed (2), Pat Deed (3), Charlie Elliott (2), Pat Ford, Ray Field, Fred Faulkner, Charlie Fitness (2), A.R.F., Muriel Field, John Goonan, Rene Gifford, Leila Grinsly, Heather Harwood (4), Maurice Hornsey, Yvonne Hutchings (4), Dick Hutchings (2), Raymond Hogg (2), Hazel Hirst, Joan Hutchings (2), Monica Jones, “ Jean,” Jill Jones, Jack Kiely, Joan Karl (3), Frances Munro, Kenneth MacKenzie (3), Mary Moule (2), Leslie Morice, Alex Morice, Audrey Needham (2), Bonny O’Connor (4), Norma O’Connor, Jean O’Connor (2), Bernard O’Connor, “ Olga,” Valerie Peters (3), “ Pixie,” Nancye Parr, Joe Park, Cecil Ruthe, Nona Ramsey (2), Peter Sanders (4), Gordon Smith, Myra Smith, Billy Sealy, Peggy Stewart, Connie Walsh (2), Jim White, Rose White, Marjory Wallace, Ray Williams, Daphne Warrander (2).