REUNION ON SHIP

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 28, 27 October 1937, Page 9

REUNION ON SHIP

Little Girls' Long .Voyage Two little girls, Barbara and fcoma Allen, one aged eix and the other aged five, travelled. alone from London to Auckland and arrived at Auckland by the Rangitiki to meet their mother, Mrs W. Allen, of Napier, who was waiting for them at Queen's Wharf when the ship birthwi. They laughted and shouted ecstatically when they caught sight of their mother as she climbed a companion-way leqding to' the deck on which they stood in charge of a stewardess. Barbara and Sonia came from Penzance, Cornwall. On board ship nearly everyone seemed intent ; nppn ' caring. for them, ' giving them fruit *ahd the multii'arious things which attract children, providing thein with playmates and things to do in "tk6ir w'akibg hours. They seemed to be the guests of 'everybody who caught sight pf them on the deck." They were the xesponsibility of Miss M. O. Bennett, one ..of the stewardesses, and when the time came to bid them good-rbye she seemed reluctant to let them go. She spoke of them as being two of the most deliglitful little children she had known, an3 said her chiei anxiety during the Voyage had been to dissuade kindly people from giving them too many good things to eat. They were dressed and ready to meet their mother long before fhe Rangitiki berthed at Queen's Wharf, and every few minutes they "olambered on the rail or rau to some vantage point to catch sight of Mrs Allen. When she went on board . they rushed up and vvarmly embraced her.