FRENCH DOLL SHOW

Taranaki Daily News, 31 October 1935, Page 11

FRENCH DOLL SHOW

RED CROSS CONTRIBUTION MAORI’S JOURNEY TO ARETTE. HOME FOUND IN PYRENEES. Two children from Arette, France, where an international doll show' has been held, by way' of expressing their pleasure at the arrival of a Maori doll sent by the Junior Red Cross, Wellington, have forwarded the following clever little “talk” about the doll:—“It is I, Maori, the doll from New Zealand. For some time I saw everything as if in a dream. What a long journey! What praise when I got to my destination! The people I have seen pass before me! And all that, yes, all that really exists. “I was bom down there, right at the end of Oceania, oii a big island in the Pacific Ocean. I loved my country, and I thought I would spend my whole life there peacefully, petted by a little girl of my own land. I was happy while skilful hands were dressing me in a skirt of frayed dried grass with flesh-coloured stuff, a cape of woven straw, and a feather collar. Gently a little girl put me into a travelling box. Curious and anxious, I listened, and I understood that I was going to France! It was a great joy to me when I felt myself being carried on to the wharf. “I finished my journey in a train, and got to Paris. I opened my eyes in a room full of dolls. There were all sorts; big, small, peasants, fashionable ladies, antique shepherdesses—in fact, a whole world of my sisters in varied costumes. I was put between an English and a Yugoslav. A great many visitors in costumes different from ours stop-, ped in front of me. I didn’t understand what they said, but by their bright eyes and their smiles I was aware of their curiosity and often of their admiration. Beautiful ladies thought me original, little girls looked enviously at me. i “I heard them praise the services of the Junior Red Cross, by means of which children of different countries' get ' to know and to love one another. I was proud to bring to little French children the greeting and friendship of New Zealand. I felt myself already loved in France, where I' had been so, warmly welcomed. Was I going to finish my life in this beautifully-decorated room among my sisters who were not at ah like me? No. The exhibition finished and I went to a little village in the Pyrenees. I saw daylight again, in a light, well-decorated classroom. 1 was welcomed with cries of joy by about 30 pupils with white skins and fair or brown hair. “A little girl presented me to the pupils of the classes, where the children were grouped according to age. From the playground I saw a range of mountains on the horizon, green with thickets, and away in the distance glaciers. I shivered at the sight and thought bitterly of the cold I would have- to bear. All, how far away it was from my native land. I would have been very homesick but for the intervention of my new friends, who introduced me to dolls from Estonia, Yugoslavia, America and Japan, and of my two travelling companions. We all understand one another wonderfully. I hardly regret any more the warm sun of New Zealand—which, however, I will not forget. “Every morning before lessons begin one of the girls of the school undertakes to look after us; she is proud to arrange our cots and to make our toilet. When it is time for class I see these little French girls march past in lightcoloured dresses, they sing very gay, very attractive songs. I listen to the lessons that they have. I admire their work. To-day I heatd cries of joy and I saw my little friends round their mistress. She, opening a parcel from the Red Cross, presented them with the doll Itchima, the little Japanese who has been made such a fuss of. She has just taken her place beside us. We are the pride of our little friends. “With them I can shout ‘Long live New Zealand, long live France.’ For the Arette branch, (signed) Anna and Andree.”