A TUTU PUDDING

West Coast Times, Issue 105335, 20 July 1897, Page 4

A TUTU PUDDING

Mr Alfred Saunders, in an article in the Press on "My First Month in New Zealand," relates that he entered into partnership at Nelson with 3 of his fellow passengers, two of whom were Quakers, and all were teetotallers and non-smokers. He says :— " A division of labor naturally followed, in which Isaac Mason Hill was the cook, I was the carpenter, John Sylvanus Cotterell was our man of business, and Cyrus Goulter was our forester. . ... On our first Saturday afternoon in Nelson, as we came in from our various occupations, we found that our cook had made us a spleudid pudding from tutu berries. When I came in the other 3 had had their dinner, and all were praising the cook and his pudding. I was intensely hungry, but I said to our Quaker cook, ' I thought these berries were poison, I^aac/'to which he replied, " Oh,but thee must know, Alfred, there are many things that are poison raw that are ne t poisou boiled." «• Oh, that's it, is it ?" said I, and my share of the really delicious pud. ding soon disappeared. After dinner we lounged about and held a consultation as to how we should spend our first Sunday in Nelson, and finally settled that we would put on our best clothes and visit some of our shipmates. Soon after this deliberate conclusion Cyrus Goulter began to conduct himself in a most improper manner, and Sylvanus Cotterell cried out, " Run, Isaac, to the river for some water -ifeW9'»<ta*lfyf fawn, fo ftfK," Js^o,

seized the bucket and ran towards the river, but he tumbled over the bucket and began to imitate Goulter bo exactly that we were all reminded of the tutu pudding. I suppose I came next, bub I ana not a competent witness for anything that ocourred during the next, 24 houra. It was getting late on Sunday evening when I lifted myself from the ground and, resting on my elbow, dreamily surveyed i the confused condition of our teetotal cottage. Three prostrate, heavy breathing, dirty-looking drunkards appeared to be lying near me. Everything had been knocked about, but tutu pudding was in evidence everywhere, and I was so much bruised, so weary and exhausted, that I lay down again to try and remember what it was all about. It was very evident and very fortunate that we had not put on our best clothes for that Sunday's walk, and it was highly probable that none of us would ever eat any more tutu pudding. No one had come near us, and we did not feelqnite up,to making calls even on the next day; but when we did relate what little we knew of our novel experience, we were told that one of our neighbors, who had eaten only a single bunch of tutu berries, was lying dead from its effect."