[i]

A Southern Cross Fairy Tale

[ii]

[iii]

A
SOUTHERN CROSS
FAIRY TALE

BY
KATE McCOSH CLARK

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY R. ATKINSON AND THE AUTHOR

LONDON
SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEALE & RIVINGTON
Limited
St. Dunstan’s House
Fetter Lane, Fleet Street, E.C.
1891
[All rights reserved]

[iv]

LONDON:
PRINTED BY GILBERT AND RIVINGTON, LIMITED,
ST. JOHN’S HOUSE, CLERKENWELL ROAD.

[v]

TO
MY GODCHILD KITTY
AND TO MY
LITTLE NEPHEWS AND NIECES.

[vi]

The scenes of Christmas tales read by English-speaking childrenhave been for the most part naturally laid amid winter, snow, andleafless landscape. The Yule-log and the holly-berry have beentime-honoured “properties.” But there are, growing up underthe Southern Cross, generations of children, with English speechand English hearts, to whom the Yule-log at Christmas is unmeaningand the snow unknown.

The little story which follows is written for such children asthese, and also for those in the older land who have any desire toknow what Christmas is like among their kin on the other side ofthe world.

While seeking to amuse, it is intended to convey pleasantinformation. New Zealand is a land full of natural wonders andnatural beauty; its vegetation and its fauna are every wayremarkable. In the following pages the allusions to thesewonders and beauties, however playfully introduced, are intendedto be truthful. The colours and habits of plants and animals arein sober reality just what they are made to appear in fairy-land.[viii]The illustrations are from nature, and will, it is hoped, bear outthe text. For the loan of certain birds and clear descriptive notesupon them, I am deeply indebted to Mr. A. Reischek, F.L.S., thewell-known naturalist. The kind interest of Professor Thomas,M.A., F.L.S., F.G.S., and the valuable notes given by him uponthe Terraces, Geysers, &c., also lay me under much obligation.

K. C.

Auckland, July, 1889.