COUSINS’ CORRESPONDENCE.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XL, Issue 12, 21 March 1908, Page 68

COUSINS’ CORRESPONDENCE.

Dear Cousin Kate, —As I am one of your eousins, I will try aud write to you often. I am eleven years old. Tai is thirteen, and Ellen is fifteen. Mr. Fowlds, the Minister of Education, came and visited our school. He gave us a halfholiday. I hope you are well. We are having a bit of rain now. Cousin Alison should write to our band once a year. I must stop now. With oceans of love to you and all our other cousins— COUSIN JANE. F.S. —Our new store is nearly finished. —J.R. [Dear Cousin Jane, —I am very pleased that you are going to take your “Graphic” cousin responsibilities seriously, and hope that you will stick to your resolution of writing often. I expect you wish Mr. Fowlds would come and visit your school often, don’t you? I used to think an unexpected half-holiday was lovely. We are having quite a lot of rain in Auckland just now, and are having such dreadfully hot, muggy weather with it that I shall be glad when it is over. I wish Alison would write once a year, but I wish still more that she was coming over with her mother and sister, who are expected to arrive in Auckland this week.—Cousin Kate.l 4? 4> dr Dear Cousin Kate, —Now having the opportunity for writing, I thought 1 would. Glad to see our letters in the “Graphic.” I am thirteen, Ellen is fifteen, and Jane, who is younger, is eleven years of age. I never have the pleasure of reading Cousin Ellen’s letters now. How’s that? Doesn’t Mr. Gallagher get the “Graphic”? Did you know that Mr. Fowlds, the Minister of Education, came to our school last Monday. He was accompanied by his wife and a few friends. He was very good. He gave us a halfholiday. Jane is writing to you to-night also. What do you think of Mr. Webb? Isn’t it nice he won again. I just wonder how he will fare with Mr. Arnst. The Oruanui natives gave a dance here last Friday night. They had a brass band and also a poi danee. It lasted till half-past five in the morning. I must wind up how and write to a friend. Love to all the eousins, not forgetting yourself.—l remain, your loving cousin, TAI. IDear Cousin Tai, —I haven’t heard from Cousin Eileen for a long time, and I don’t even know where they are living now. I think it is very likely they are not taking the “Graphic” at present, and, if that is the case, of course Eileen would not care to write when she would not see her letters ia print, nor the answers to them. I was very pleased that our New Zealand man won the race, and is still champion, and I hope he will manage to win just as easily when he meets Arnst. I should very much have liked to see the race; the river must have looked lovely with the crowds of people lining the banks and the numbers of

small boats here, there, and everywhere. I don’t think I should care to go to a dance which lasted until half-past five in the morning; I am afraid I should have fallen asleep ’before it was over. —Cousin Kate.] . 4> * 4» Dear Cousin Kate, —Do you like the weather any better now that we have had such heavy rain? I don’t. I think it is hotter than ever and so dreadfully muggy- Well, Cousin Kate, I told you in my last letter that I was too excited to . tell you very much about our trip to town, but I have got over all that now, so will tell you of all our doings. You know we only had a day to get ready, as mother decided quite unexpectedly that some business needed personal attention, so it was decided on Saturday night that we should go to Auckland by Monday’s express. It is a very long trip from Taumarunui, and on this occasion it was a very hot and dusty one, so that we were not sorry to get to the Auckland station. Ido wish the railway officials could run an express right through from Taumarunui; it is such a nuisance ehanging trains and looking after one’s luggage at Frankton Junction, and very often, I am told, people have the same difficulty as we had in finding seats in the Rotorua express. Of course it was an unusually packed train, but still that did not make it any better for us. Mother got a rather uncomfortable seat with her back to the engine, and, as I could not get a seat in the same carriage, I spent most of my time on the platform. We went to stay with some old friends of mothers, who live on Cheltenham Beach; of course you know it Cousin Kate, and luckily all the time we were there the tide suited for a morning dip, and I did enjoy them so much. I can only swim a very little, but I.really think I improved during the week. We always bathed before breakfast, and afterwards, of course, there was heaps to do. One day our friends took me to the Museum and the Art Gallery in the morning, and after lunch we took a cab and drove to the top of Mount Eden. The view is lovely Cousin Kate, isn’t it? and then round to the Onehunga Kiosk for tea, and then home, driving through Sir John Campbell’s splendid gift to the city of Auckland, “Cornwall Park.” Another day we went out to Lake Takapuna in a motor car, and in the evening went to see “Peter’s Mother” at His Majesty’s, but I told you all about that before. Do you wonder I was excited, Cousin Kate? Fancy a country, girl, who had never been in a motor car nor been inside a theatre, suddenly introduced to all these pleasures. On Saturday night we went all round Auckland in the electric cars, and though at first I was a wee bit nervous of those top-deckers, I was so interested in everything that I very soon forgot about it. Well, dear Cousin Kate, I’m afraid I must stop or there will not be room enough in your page for my voluminous letter, so I will save the rest until next time. —Cousin ELSIE. [Dear Cousin Elsie, —I thank you so much for fulfilling your promise of telling me more of your visit to Auckland. I was very interested in it, more especially as everything was so new to you.

I have often wondered how living in even a small town like Auckland would strike a real country-bred girl. I expect you thought it lovely for just the short time you were here, but I have no doubt that if you had been staying some months, you would have been pining for home again. Do you know i think an unexpected trip like yours is nearly always far more enjoyable than one which one has been preparing for and looking forward to for weeks, another instance of expectation being better than realisation? You seem to have had a very busy week, and had a great many pleasures crammed into a short space of time. Did you feel that you needed a rest when you got home? A chum of mine, who recently went Home on a' nine months’ visit to the Old Country and the continent told me that when she arrived home again, she wanted to go to bed for a whole week just to feel thoroughly rested. In her case the whole nine months had been spent in a ceaseless rush of sightseeing so it was no wonder she was tired out was it? Write again soon.—Cousin Kate.]