Christchurch, New Zealand, 30th April, 1888

Royal Hotel
Christchurch
30 April 1888

My dearest Mamie,

I was so delighted to get two letters from you today and one from Elliot – finishing one of yours. I don't understand how it is you have not heard from me. I write at every opportunity to one or other of you. In his last letter Fred says he received a letter from me from King Gengis Sound, and he says he would have sent the letter on to you as I asked him to do but he did not know your address. I know I asked both you and him to exchange some of my letters as it is difficult to tell exactly the same news to each one.

How very tiresome it must be for you not to know when the Regiment is to be moved. Before you receive this letter all your troubles on this head will be solved, and I hope you will be comfortably settled at Devon. How delighted Tarquin must have been to see Elliot again!

I hope the kitten is all right. I am glad the mare is well. I hope Elliot found her as well as Hughes said she was and was able to enjoy some hunting on her. I like to picture you to myself, and as much as possible with the animals and things I remember.

I would give a great deal to have you all out here for a while, just to see the place and the way we live. You would fancy this was out in the heart of England – it is so very English in so many ways.

I think you will quite wish to stay with your sister and let Elliot go to Aldershot alone until it is decided what the Regiment is going to do.

I was very sorry to hear that your sister is so delicate. I was hopeful she was getting stronger as she had not mentioned her health for some little time. Pray congratulate the Glandaragh people on the birth of their son. I am sure both your brother and his wife have been very pleased to have a boy after so many daughters.

I am glad Elliot has another stripe. Does Mr Coddington come back to the Regiment in the same position that he was in before he left? Does he not lose any stripes by it?

I wrote to both you and Elliot last Thursday and I will now tell you what we have done since then. After I had finished all the mail letters I passed them to General Algar to post for me with his own. When he returned he walked with me as far as the Wguni Williams, where I wanted to call, but he would not come in with me. He is a very shy man and it seemed an effort to him to make a new acquaintance.

I saw at the William's such a handsome book of photographs of their place - of New Zealand. It was for a wedding present. When I go home I must put all the photos I get into a book and I expect we shall find them very interesting. When I came out I found the General waiting for me and we walked back to the hotel together.

Anna was not very well that day. She had I think visited a little too much the night before and she had been painting a good deal at the school for several days and I think the two things knocked her up. A night's rest however soon set her up again. We had to sit in the Coffee Room all that day as they were repainting the room. They have put on a very pretty little paper and it looks very clean and bright now.

The next day, Friday, Anna went back to the school and worked away then the whole day as it was the last day the school was to be open. The General went to Port Lyttleton to take photos, so I was left alone. I went for a walk in the Botanical Gardens and sat and walked there for more than an hour. It was very pleasant and the day was long.

On Saturday morning I went with the General to see the Gardens of the Acclimatisation Society. There was one kangaroo there and one monkey but nothing else except a few birds kept. The whole pleace looked so neglected and badly kept. I believe they have tried to breed salmon in the ponds, but they have failed. They have succeeded however with trout, of which there are a good number here.

We then walked on to the Botanical Gardens which are very well kept and on to the museum. There are some very interesting things in it. We had been there before so we went on to the picture gallery which we had not seen. There is a very poor collection of pictures in it. The 5 Leighton's chosen this year for the colony seemed to me to be very good ones. But I had not much time to look at them as the General did not care much for them.

Anna went that day to the hunt meet with Mrs Nidwell and her daughter. She said she had a very pleasant time, though she does not think the hounds found anything. They hunt the hare when they can find one, which does not seem to be always.