COUSIN BETTY’S LETTER

Southland Times, Issue 23308, 18 September 1937, Page 1 (Supplement)

COUSIN BETTY’S LETTER

My dear Cousins,

You have a very proud and pleased Cousin Betty. As a result of your weeks of rehearsals and hard work for the Pantomime, we have £45 to hand to the Invercargill Free Kindergartens. Don’t you think that you should give yourselves a vote of thanks?

I am glad to see that my cousins are remembering the Hospital Fund. There were two more contributions in my mail this week, and some of my Little Southlanders have promised books and toys. Soon the walls will be covered with the Art Gallery and Pantomime photographs, the Table-top will groan under piles of books, the shelves will become a resting place for toys, and on visiting days the room will be filled with Little Southlanders. Where will you find Cousin Betty? Do you think there will be a corner for her? Even Michael and his friends are busy toy-making. I wonder if they will pass their handiwork from the pages of the Chronicle? I know many tiny patients in the hospital would like to receive toys made by Michael.

I decided after reading your stories that I would not like to be a raindrop. They have very exciting lives, but their adventures are not always pleasant. Would you like to be swallowed by a cow, or used to wash potatoes? It is much better to be a mortal, with pantomimes, hospital days and other interesting events to supply the excitement.

Our Chronicle is a much-travelled paper. Cousins living in Gisborne, Wellington, Nelson, Greymouth and Central Otago have written to me lately, and have told me that each week our page is posted to them by grown-up Southlanders. Some of my cousins have even sent copies to their oyerseas pen-friends. So you see, our readers include the children of Southland, of New Zealand, and of other lands across the seas. Perhaps one of our pages will return some day to tell us its story.

Penelope Pen has always been interested in your pen-friends, and has often found addresses to which you could write. In return, see if you can write a poem for her. She is the subject for. the competition next week, and all her co-workers of Table-top Land are looking forward to reading your verses. Bertie Blotter, her closest friend, wanted to know if he could turn the leaves of Carrie Calendar so that it would be the closing date this Monday instead of next week. would Father Time say if we missed a whole tinaplr ? • Your loving