OLD-WORLD TOUCH

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20930, 8 January 1938, Page 14

OLD-WORLD TOUCH

Lace berthas are appearing once more on evening frocks. A bertha of white guipure lace for instance, gives an old-world touch to a picture frock of crimson faille. A satin corset allied to a skirt of pleated chiffon is a novel style for evening wear, and the mannequin who wore it had a sequin butterfly perched in her hair!

legends of the pohutukawa TREE More than one story belongs to the pohutukawa or New Zealand Christmas tree. One tells that a Maori chieftain, when sailing along the coast one day, looked long at the lovely pohutukawa flaunting its scarlet blossoms along the cliffs, and then flung his headdress of scarlet feathers into the sea, saying that such ornaments were of no account in comparison with those of the trees. Another legend of a famous pohutukawa tree derives from Maori mythology. The spirits of the dead on their way from earth were supposed to travel from all over New Zealand to Cape Reinga, in the extreme north. There they had to leave the land, and plunge down through the ocean to the underworld. A giant pohutukawa grew on the cliff, and, reluctant to leave earth, the spirits clung desperately to a bough of this tree, which hung low over the water. Lower and lower bent the bough, weighed down by the clinging spirits, and the waves dashed against the cliff and thought it rare sport to spray the spirits before they took the inevitable plunge. For many years the great bending bough was pointed out to visitors, but it finally broke off, and in its turn plunged into the ocean.