Masonic Hotel, Napier
Sunday May 13th/06
My dear Mother
It is really your turn for a letter so I am writing to you as well as to Father as it is time to send good wishes for his birthday, & I shall consider it your turn again next mail. I hope we shall get the delayed Frisco letters in about a week, they should have arrived last week in the ordinary course of events. I was glad to get your letter via Italy a day or two ago. I am very glad some one has been found to be G.F.S. secretary, it will be a great relief to you. What a pity that you lost your gold pince nez, you do seem to have been unlucky lately. Aunt Lottie & I have both had narrow escapes lately of losing things. At Masterton Auntie dropped her fur but it was picked up & returned to her & yesterday sitting out on the Parade I left my muff on the seat when we got up & only thought of it some twenty minutes later, I went straight back & found some children had picked it up & taken it to a house close by. It was really much too hot a day for a muff but I was carrying it when we moved on here from the Marine Parade Hotel where we had to spend three days. They could not take us in here at the Masonic until yesterday (Saturday). You will read in my diary how we went up the previous Saturday to Rissington to stay with Mr Hutchinson’s people for a few days. We had such a nice time up there, at least I enjoyed it & I think Auntie did – she seemed to get on very well with Mrs Hutchinson & indeed it would be difficult not to get on well with her. Mr Hutchinson was looking so much better than when we first met him on the boat, he had a bad riding accident some years ago which he thought he should always feel the effects of, but now after a course of treatment under an Auckland doctor he calls himself better than he ever expected to be again. He talks of going to Auckland again during the slack time in winter. We had some delightful expeditions while we were at Rissington & perfect weather all the time. They have a nice house & keep two servants, so everything is very comfortable though without any attempt at “show”. There is only the one son at home now besides Mr & Mrs Hutchinson he is the eldest, there is another son in Canada & two married sisters one of whom lives close by, we saw her & her baby, a three months old boy whom his Grannie walks up to see almost every day.
We shall be in Napier until Friday when we go on to New Plymouth stopping en route at Marton. Napier is a very nice place to put in a little time at. We generally have a good walk in the morning & there is always reading writing & needlework for the rest of the day. I hope we shall see Mr Hutchinson again one day this week, he thought he should be down in town again before we leave. You would have enjoyed the concert we went to on Thursday evening. I wished you could have been there, as I often wish when we are enjoying a particularly nice drive such as the one down from Rissington on Wednesday morning, the weather was so perfect though it rained later in Napier. Please give my love to Mrs Idiens & the Orchards if you happen to be seeing them, it is nice of them to think of me. Fancy the Gilpins coming out to Auckland I wish they had arrived when we were there. I do hope Arthur will get on well in his exam, which will I suppose be about beginning when you get this. Much love
From your loving daughter
May E Sladden
