CHILDREN’S CORRESPONDENCE COLUMN.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXIII, Issue IX, 26 August 1899, Page 46

CHILDREN’S CORRESPONDENCE COLUMN.

Any boy or girl who likes to become a cousin 3an do so. and write letters to *Co isin Kate, mre of the Ltvdy Editor. 'Graphic Office, Auckland. Write on one side of the paper only. All purely correspondence letters with enelope ends tinned in are carried through the Post Office as follows:—Not exceeding ,oz. Ad ; not exceeding 4oz. Id : for every additional 2oz or fractional part thereof, jd. It is well for correspondence to be marked * Press Manuscript only.’ I "lease note, dear cousins, that all letters addressed to Cousin Kate must now bear the words * Press Manuscript only. If so marked, and the flap turned in. and not overweight, they will come for a jd stamp in Auckland, but a Id from every other place. Dear Cousin Kate, —Nettie is writing to-night, so I thought 1 would write too. 1 am in the second standard. Our examination is next month, ami 1 hope 1 pass. We have a dear little fox-terrier; we eall it Terry. She has two little puppies. We are going to give one away and keep the other and call it Tim. Tiny is such a little pet; she always wants to come in our bed in the morning. Sometimes we put her in and cover her up like a baby and she will stop there till we take her out. Mother has a canary: he sings lovely. He always sings most when we are all at our meals. I hope the little boy in the cot is getting better. We were in Auckland about two years ago. I thought it such a pretty place. I hope my letter is not too long. — Cousin Amy.

| Your letter was not a bit too long, Cousin Amy. 1 was most interested to hear of your fox-terrier, and so 1 am sure the other cousins will be. They are such nice little dogs, but 1 am afraid 1 would not like one in my bed. 1 hope the cold weather will not hurt the little puppy. 1 had a canary until last week when I gave it to a friend for a birthday present. She admired it so much and 1 am so long away from home in the day time that I seldom heard "Dicky” 'sing so I thought it would give more pleasure to my friend. I quite agree with you that Auckland is a very pretty place.—Cousin Kate.)

Dear Cousin Kate. —I am very sorry we did not get the “Graphic” soon enough, as 1 intended to make a little frock for the competition. By the time we get the “Graphic" it is too late to send an answer in before the competition closes. I feel very sorry for the poor little boy in the eot. If you send me a card 1 will try to collect something. We had a fall of snow a short time ago. but it froze too hard, so we did not have much fun snowballing. We had grand fun last year, as I think I told vou liefore. The snow was on the ground for a fortnight, and did not get hard. We had never seen snow la'fore. ami thought it was very beautiful. It was over three feet deep in our garden. and we made a snow num. I told father vou would like a photo of the lighthouse to put in the "Graphic.” and he has already sent one. M ith love to

—————— all the cousins. 1 remain, your loving cousin, Nettie. [Dear Cousin Nettie. —It is really kind of you to promise to collect for me as 1 can assure you 1 want ever so much money for the eot. 1 do hope all the cousins will try and collect something, however little. 1 will send you the card by this mail. 1 hope to get the photographs of the lighthouse in soon: perhaps this week. —Cousin Kate.] Dear Cousin Kate, —To-day Cousin I ho: be and 1 went for a long walk, which 1 will tell you about. We started from Thorndon shortly after noon, with the intention of going for a short walk round Oriental Bay. When, however, we had gone as far round as Koseneath. the b<auty of the day tempted us to go over the hills to the Mount Victoria signal station. After we had gone for about a mile our troubles commenced, as we did not know the way. Meeting a little boy we asked him if we could direct us, and he told us to go straight ahead until we came to three cross paths anti then to take the highest. This we did. but soon found we were completely off the track, as we were making straight for Island Bay, and we surmised that if we kept on as we were going we would have to make a complete circuit of the range, which we calculated would take us days before we reached our destination. Then we took a spell and began philosophising on the vanities of life, especially those which put it into people's heads to go for tours of exploration without an iota of knowledge of the country over which they intended to go. This refreshed us wonderfully. The day was simply charming, and the view which we had of Cook's Straits and Lyell's Bay magnificent; so we argued that if the view was so grand from where we then were, how much more so must it be from the highest point of the range. So we made a bee line for the highest hill we could see. Cousin Phoebe meanwhile quoting. “Steep hills grow less as we ascend them." but imagine our distress of mind when we had ascended it to find there were still more hills, and some so steep that in the distance they looked almost perpendicular and impossible to climb: but what was far worse was that total! the distance we had gone we had never once caught a glimpse of our destination—Mount Victoria. However we were determined not to be done, and with grim, set faces and muttering“ Nil Desperandum" through hard-set teeth we made another start. The time was then about four o'clock. After having traversed a short way we suddenly espied a half broken down gate, and we argued that if there were gates about there must b ■ people not far off. Making for it we found ourselves on a high, rocky, deserted mountain side, with only a cattle trail to show that once it had be l ’n inhabited. This we followed for nearly a mile and a half when we struck off to the right and wandered on for about an hour, going through barbed wire fences and getting bogged on an average of every ten minutes. We were properly lost. When our Spartan courage was almost exhausted and dismal thoughts were entering our heads of spending the night on the hills. Cousin Phoebe gave sueh a joyful shout that T really thought for the moment that she had taken leave of her senses. Following her gaze T saw in the far distance the rising peak of Mount Victoria. Our relief was so great that our spirits rose immediutelv. Pursuing our wav tin the hill the landscajie broadened, and then we sat down once mor« to admire the view. Tt was simplv perfect. The whole harlamr lay before us. The sun was inst setting: the water looked like one vast sheet of glass. Wellington. in the distance, resembled a fairy city, and afar off across the

Straits the snow-cap|>ed Kaikouras, with the towering ridge of Mount Fife glistening out in the sunset, made up one of the most picturesque scenes I have ever witnessed. The place was so quiet and lonely- that the magnificence of it quite awed us and nearly took away our breath. Pulling ourselves together with an effort we made straight for the signal station, the rest of our way after reaching it l»eing all plain sailing. No worse calamity happening to us than that Cousin Phoebe stumbled into a big hole which had l>een dug to plant a tree. at length we arrived home, tired, mud-stained, and hungry, but, nevertheless, having enjoyed ourselves immensely.—With love from Cousin Elsie. (Dear Cousin Elsie, —You will see I have printed your very good letter in full, though to do so I have had to keep one or two Cousins’ letters ont. You have a really- able faculty for descriptive writing, which you should carefully cultivate. In writing for the Cousins' Page in future, you might endeavour to condense a little. Your letter is just a trifle long for my limited space.—Cousin Kate.]