Sunday Aug 26th/06
My dear Father
We are bound for the Blue Mountains tomorrow so I must get my home letters written tonight so that they may catch the “Omral”at Adelaide. She started from Sydney yesterday but letters go overland to Adelaide & are picked up there. Aunt Lottie had a letter from Aunt Lizzie the other day addressed to the Post Office here which must have come on the “Oroya”. I am sorry you did not post to me here by the same mail, however I dare say I shall find letters waiting for me on our return from the Blue Mts. The Frisco mail was very late at Auckland this time too late to catch yesterday’s boat from Wellington, so we can’t get the letters till the middle of next week as a boat only runs once a week on Saturdays. You will read in my diary what a good send off we had at Wellington & how we fared on the trip across. It is nice having Uncle with us. We are staying at a very nice hotel & we hope they will be able to take us in again next Sat when we expect to return but they cannot promise us rooms. Uncle is much amused at the way Auntie Lottie takes upon herself the office of courier to our party, he does not care about guide books, time-tables, Tourist offices & the like, while as for Aunt Lottie you know these things are food & drink to her, so she makes plans & arrangements & he describes himself as being “personally conducted”! He has kept all this week free from business engagements so as to be able to go to the Blue Mts & the Jerdan Caves. I expect we shall have a very good time up there. There is lots to do in Sydney as well, in fact we don’t think we shall have time to do all we might do before Sept. 8th. It strikes me as very like an English town, the comparatively narrow streets & massive stone buildings have a home-like look. After N.Z, towns it seems very large & important. The new railway station is as large & important as the best London stations. I never saw anything like the tram service here, in the principal streets cars follow each other at intervals of 50 yards or even less. The ferry service too to all parts of the harbour is splendid & so cheap, one sees these big ferry boats each capable of holding I should think two or three hundred people, darting about the harbour in every direction.
The Post Office here is a huge place with so many departments, one has to walk quite a long way from one to another. Our hotel is very central, but just off the main streets & so away from the noise of the trams which is a great thing.
What a grand affair the Warwick Pageant must have been, I was very much interested in reading about it. You must have all felt very elated that day having just had the news of Arthur’s brilliant success. It was very nice getting that news in my last budget of letters before leaving N.Z. We shall no doubt have letters from Petone by this week’s boat from Wellington. I heard from both Frances & Mary before we left & Lewie & Percy both wrote to Aunt Lottie, we were sorry neither of them could manage to get down to see us off. George also sent a message that he was sorry not to be able to come to see us off.
Aunt Lizzie told Aunt Lottie she was expecting Ethel to stay & that Juliet was going to Sandwich. I hope they both had a nice time. I am anxious to get letters specially to hear how Kathleen’s affairs have been going on. I do hope she will get some nice work. I shall write again in a week’s time by the next Italy mail & hope then to be able to give further impressions of Australia. Much love to you all from
Your loving daughter
May E Sladden
