NOTES FROM NELSON.

Lyell Times and Central Buller Gazette, Volume VI, Issue 285, 7 August 1886, Page 2

NOTES FROM NELSON.

(from our own correspondent.)

The Nile Street Bridge Claims.

After a lapse of some five months the question of the liability of the Borough Council for the damages sustained by the three victims of the Nile street bridge collapse has beeD argued in the Supreme Court at Wellington ; and, as I predicted at the time, the corporation will have to pay. As the council is at present constituted I should imagine they will endeavour to save further litigation and expense by compromising with the in-

jural parties; that is if any thing like a reasonable assessment can be agree 1 upon. When all the various items of the cost of this blundering business are paid the result will be very crippling to the prosecution of other works in the town, in connection with this affiir I recollect at the time the hardships the sufterers would feel by having the hearing of their claims postponed for so long a time was discussed, and there was some very sympathetic talk in the corporation as to subscriptions to help the sufferers, several of the members expressing their anxiety to help by putting their hinds in their pockets. Perhaps they did so, but the victims gained nothing by the operation. A treat for a Gourmand. I don't know if any of my readers have a taste for high living, f know some who like their game and venison " high," and I h ive been tol I that it requires a gastro nomical education to appreciate olives and caviare; but did any of you ever try Mutton birds a la Maori? I was told they are considered a dainty in Otago and Southland : and are on the menu of the swell tables there. They are in season just now. A friend of mine was up here some months ago, and whilst on a visit to the Maori pah the conversation turned on Mutton birds or ti ti as the natives call them. They are caught by the natives down south in thousands just before they can fly, and are very fat. They are cleaned after a fashion and packed in their own fat in a peculiar kind of a package made out of kelp or sea weed. My friend promised to forward some up to the hospitable chieftamers at Wakapuako. and a week or two ago I received them. Curiosity led me to open the package. The effluvia arising therefrom was not enticing, but I had dined with Maories before, and, was not to be baulked by the evidence of one organ alone; so took a couple of them to our cook with instructions to prepare one for breakfast, In the morning I approached the table with the expectation of enjoying a treat. One taste was enough. Anticipation was euchred. Description baffled. The nearest approximate to its taste which I can give is highly flavoured smoked barracouta with cod liver oil sauce. I passed. So did another who tried it. A chum of mine with Maori proclivities was anxious for a bird to gloat over, I gave him one and told him they were delicious. He cuts me in the street now; evidently he thinks I have had him. But the balance of the consignment were not wasted. Julia the Maori Queen was in town to-day and told me that they are all eaten and she wants more!!

Moral:— Chacun d son goat. Koraei.