NOTES FROM NELSON.

Lyell Times and Central Buller Gazette, Volume VI, Issue 286, 14 August 1886, Page 2

NOTES FROM NELSON.

(from our own correspondent.)

Harbour Improvements.

For about a fortnight my friend, Mr Akersten ,has had carte blanche in the Slop Bucket to air his opinions od harbour improvements. His letters were long and prosy, and had two features about them which are always prominent in his correspondence, viz., the cleverness of Mr William Akersten himself, and the manner in which he sometimes loses his nominative case and gets mixed up. The business is too long for me to criticise in this paper, and would have no special interest to your upcounfr y readers; but I only mention it, as two other well-known individuals are now imported into the discussion in the local papers—Mr Champion Mine Henrick and Korari. It is a sort of triangular duel at present, all three being at loggerheads, and it is hard to say what will be the end of it. Another special feature in the matter, is the publication of an illustrated Supplement with the Slop Bucket ? the picture being a plan of Mr Akersten's proposed improvements. It is a remarkable work of art, and resembles a second hand poster ; and it contains something else which is, to my mind, the secret of the whole thing. My friend Akersten has worked a very neat little game on the Slop Bucket people. He got. his letters printed; through them he gained his darling ambition to become a member of the Chamber of Commerce, and then he got

his map printed with " Akersten's Store " in prominent 'letters stuck in it. 1 call th.it smart advertising. Football. Football has been the all-absorbing topic among our muscular christians for the past two months. At the street corners, at the barber's shop, at breakfast, dinner, and supper there is the " infernal iteration " of half backs, second fifteens, drop kicks, gate money, and such like references to the noble gama which are as unintelligible to the uninitiated as Coptic is to a Cherokee. Saturday last was a match day. It would be a compliment to the clerk of the weather to say it was wet. It was more; it was muddy and slushy to perfection. Yet thirty maniacs belonging to two clubs, and a couple of umpires and a referee met at the enclosure satirically known as tho Botanical Gardens, and there rolled each other over for two solid hours in tho sludge ; with a result so far as scoring was concerned of nil. But they succeeded in removing a few cartloads of mud on their clothes aud faces, and will have to repeat tho interesting struggle over again next week to arrive at a conclusion as to which club takes away most soil from the Gardens. The medical faculty was disappointed, as it is generally level betting that a foothill worry witb 33 iu it eventuates in a " case." The Canines Advocate.

There has been very few opportunities afforded to either our Blind Bay or West Coast members to profit by tkr.r oratory this session. It has been a pre-eminently dull one, and the immolation .f a lot of minor bills took away the last nhanee our members had of being reported in Hansard. Certainly Mr Ilursthouse had an innings of four hours duration whilst stonewalling ths Taranaki Breakwater, but that did not lead to any direct expenditure of money in his district, nor did it relieve the Motueka people of taxation in any form. The combined energies of all our members were concentrated in the determination to keep Vogel in office ; so it was not to be expected they would be allowed to take any part in an important debate : all they were required to do was to vote as directed. But so far as vestry legislation was concerned they were permitted to use their own sweet wills. An occasion arose and the Hon. member for the Buller was equal to it. It was the Dog Tax: and Mr O'Conor was in great form, lie wanted to have certain kinds of dogs exempted from taxation. Now, it depends a good deal on a man's occupation and