Petone, Wellington
August 5th/06
My dear Father
Your letter of June 27th arrived on Aug 1st – quite the quickest arrival of any home letter I have had for a long time, the Frisco mails are so often late or we have been away when the letters come. The garden must have been looking very nice indeed when you wrote & I expect there is still plenty of bloom. I hope you & Jack had a nice little trip together. Jack spoke of Devon or Cornwall as a possible choice. I expect you would enjoy either or both very much. I am sorry to hear of old Mrs Marshall’s death. Fancy ‘Arry Keen being married! I wonder how Ethel got on at the tea! I am sorry the Idiens are going to leave Wickhamford, we shall miss them & so I am sure will Wickhamford Church. I hope you all enjoyed the Warwick pageant. I saw pictures of some of the scenes in “The Illustrated London News” which came last week. Norah enjoyed it I expect. Maidie had a letter from her last mail in which she said she was enjoying her visit very much & thought the garden lovely. Frank says almost all the seeds from Badsey he put in did well except the sweet peas – they suffered from the wet summer & autumn & did not consequently come to much, but neither did anyone else’s that were sown late do any good. Uncle Dilnot has taken his berth in the “Waikare” by which we sail for Sydney on the 18th – they say it is a very good boat & I hope we shall have a good trip across. Uncle has given up the idea of going to Melbourne on business as he at first thought of doing, it would have taken up a week & he wants to start back from Sydney Sept 8th – the day we go – so we are very glad he has decided to spend a real holiday – he may have a little business near Sydney but that he says will not take him long. This evening while some of the others were at Church I had a good read at “the Newcomes” which I am very interested in. I had a long read yesterday afternoon too so I am getting on with it.
Monday I was not in a very letter writing mood last night so left this to finish today, it is to go by the Vancouver mail leaving tomorrow. There will be another outward Frisco mail leaving next week that will be the last we can post by from here. I shall of course write from Sydney & also from Colombo.
We are going to take our lunch today & walk up to the Rock. Aunt Lottie has never been to the top of the Rock. Aunt Lizzie went when she was here & I am sure Aunt Lottie will never hear the last of it when she gets home if she does not go. It is a lovely day again & I expect we shall enjoy the walk & the view of the harbour. Maidie & Dolly I think are going – Birdie of course is at work. She begins her holidays only a few days after we leave. I wish they had come a little earlier.
I hope they are having a fine Bank Holiday at home, it seems strange to think of you all enjoying the summer, though really here in the middle of the day the weather is almost summerlike, the sun is so much more powerful in winter than it is with us. I will send Ethel a few lines if I have time when we get back. With much love to you all
Your loving daughter
May E Sladden
PS - Aunt Lottie heard from the Francis’ at Melbourne the other day asking us to stay with them a fortnight & go on by the next boat – but as we have taken our berths & made all arrangements we shall not be able to give them more than the day as we did coming out.
