TRANSCRIPTION:
Dear Edith
I have been anxiously waiting for a letter from you as you owe me one, but they were telling me at home that you wanted to know why I didn’t write.
By all accounts you seem to be having a great time, & I suppose you are [illeg.] travelling much about slab dabbing yet.
I am up at the Station now & have been for the last two months. I like it very much the only thing is you never see a girl from one week’s end to another. At present we are putting up a telephone line to [Matae Tera?] that is another of our [illeg.] & by jove it is hard work. We generally walk to work & I can tell you we generally feel a bit tired when we [illeg.] trudging home in the dark with wet feet. It is far different to walking on the pavement in a London street. Last night Jack Harry & I knocked off work when it was dark and we had to ride through that bush of [illeg.] near the house. The track is bad enough to ride out in the day time but when you are in the dark you don’t know where you are going. We had to keep [illeg.] watches to find the tracks. I can tell you my heart was in my mouth [illeg.] all the time.
We are going over to [Matai Tera?] tomorrow to finish the line so we will be having great feeds of [illeg.] for the next week or so.
Mrs Pepper went out to Taihape yesterday to see young Gordon. She is stopping out for a week & I can tell you we soon missed the comforts after of having a woman in the house. She is a real decent woman. Gordon is doing famously he can walk a little now, but he cant use his [illeg.] left arm yet. He has been under about twelve operations so he has had a very bad time of it.
Dad is here to-night, he came from the Turakina end this afternoon. Harry has a bad throat just at present, I think the telephone line Is telling on him.
We all go out to play football in Taihape usually every Saturday & we are all doing A.1. We have only been beaten once so far out of four games so we are right after the cup.
Reg seems to be playing great football in Wanganui. He has been picked for the Reps on several occasions. By the way he is a Bank Manager now.
He joined the National Bank of NZ, & started the first of this month. He likes it alright according to dad.
I was down in Wang to see the battleship but I did not go out as it was so rough. Reg & Harry went out in one of the {illeg.] & got a great tossing about, nearly everybody was sick.
Well Edith I hope London fogs suit you alright, & that it won’t be very many month or years before you paint some famous picture which will be a credit to the Collier family.
Well I am afraid I must close now & I hope that our next letters will not run into another’s as this one has.
Your [illeg.] brother
Frank