Christchurch, New Zealand, 2nd June 1888

Christchurch, 2nd June 1888

Dearest Mamie,

On Saturday we did all our packing and came off here in the afternoon. I was feeling very miserable with a very bad headache and when we arrived here I had to lie on the sofa all the evening.

We have very good sized airy rooms here and they are funding us very well, but at first I did not think we should be able to stay, as we were afraid they were going to be dirty. However, I spoke to the landlady and she has been much more particular since. We pay 3 guineas a week for the two of us for board and everything and I think it is ridiculously cheap.

What I suffer most from here (and it was much the same at the hotel) is the closet. It is a most primitive arrangement which has to be emptied once a week. It is out of doors in a little wooden shed. You can imagine how horrible this arrangement is, and I cannot believe it is wholesome.

There is no system of drains here and the water supply is from Artisan Wells. The water is good, which is fortunate, as home wines are very dear and native wines are not very good. The beer they make out here is not at all bad. It is light and bitter and I do not dislike it, but I cannot often drink beer.

There are a great number of balls and parties on this week but Anna has not been invited to any of them. Mrs Nidwill, however, is trying to see if she cannot get her an invitation to a fancy dress ball that is being given this day week by a rich bachelor who glories in the name of Poppan! He is spending, we are told, £200 on the dance and most of Anna’s friends are going to it.

Most of the girls here make their own dresses and Anna has helped two of them to design their dresses for the fancy dress ball. I am often amazed at the way she is consulted at times as to how the dresses are made at home and what the fashion is in coats &c.

I am going tomorrow to get Anna some new print and I am going to make her a dress. We are to go to Mrs Nidwill’s on Thursday morning to sew it on her machine. It was very kind of her to ask us.

I wish I had had money enough when I was leaving home to have got myself a really nice silk black dress with two bodies for evening and day wear. It would have been very useful to me. But of course, I had not the money and I did not think the people would have dressed much here.

I had a nice long letter from Fred today, he has work to do but is to get no pay, which I think is rather bad, for he is quite competent to do good work and he ought to get paid for it. However he seems to think it will be all right and he says he will agitate for pay in six months. He has got some nice rooms not far from our flat and he expects to be comfortable in them.

It is getting much more difficult to write you long letters how as we are settling down to quiet every day life and very little of interest happens to us. However, I will not finish this letter tonight and perhaps I shall have some thing new to add tomorrow evening.