The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1888. HUNTING THE GHASTLY.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1941, 11 September 1888, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1888. HUNTING THE GHASTLY.

On tho morning of August 31st the ketch Colonist went ashore near Wellington and Captain Bailey and two seamen were drowned. Tho captain's body was washed ashore and the usual inquest held; When the body came ashore the usual means for restoring life were adopted, but these were of no avail, and tho captain waR considered as dead as the proverbial herring. About five days after, tbe body was sent to Waitara, near New Plymouth, in an hermetically sealed coffin, in tho lid of which was placed a glass opening so that tbe relatives of the deceas d, upon arrival, might see the face of the departed before the body was consigned to its last resting place. When the pall was removed a certain Father Cassidy and a schoolmaster named Dickey are reported to have noticed upon looking at the deceased that his eyes opened and shut, A great scare ensued, and the coffin was opened an4 the means of restoring animation resorted to. Telegrams were despatched bioadcast on the spur of the moment, and a very sensational character was given to all the proceedings. A

doctor who was called in pronounced Jife extinct, but is reported to havq said that thp appearance of the face of the deceased was remarkably life-like, especially considering that tho captain had been drowned five days previously. Then followed * enquiries, and many went so far as to say that Captain Bailey waß not dead when the inquest was held upon him, and that ho was only in a cataleptic trance. The Coroner wrDr Johnston< — asserts tho captain was d/ead ap |tbe time of the inquest, and if he were not dead he would have been smothered in his coffin before he reached Waitara, and so ho was inclined to dtebejieye ifcho Bjtory of hJB eyes opening and ehuMng. The undertaker, on being interviewed, gave jt as his opinion that tho captain was dead, and gayo as a probable cause of tho eyos opening that ho had washed tho faco of the deceased before sealing up the coffin and it was possible that some air which had got in might have dried the moisture and relaxed the features sufficiently to cause the eyelids to open. This explanation of tho mystery was \ endorsed by "medical $en as being perfectly feasible, • All 'along go wore inclined to think that jtho people at Waitara had boon mistaken. There ib j very little doubt but that the captain i was both drowned and killed by being ' beaten against tho rocks. Now wo have 1 tha Information to hand from New \ Plymp^^F^erOapßidyaeßiestbat |

ever he or Mr Dickie ever stated that they saw deceased's eyes open or shut * This puts an end to the matter, but it Jj Bhows how reckless tho agents of the 0 Press Association are in telegraphing such absurd and sensational stuff about 0 people. We havo not printed a line' 1 about the matter, being assured it was I all so much twaddle. It is a pity tbe b New Plymouth people have nothing £ better to occupy their time than invent- 0 ing silly and intended sensational it stories. Tho Wellington papers have been all by tbe ears over tho affair, 0 when a little common sense and reflec- J tion might havo shown that it was more a likely to be a canard than anything else. 8 The " Hew Zealand Times" makes groat jjj capital oat of the rumor, and asserts tl roundly that Captain Bailoy has been r buried alive, and much more in tho *' same strain. There may be horrible g caseß on record where persons in a trance g have been buried, but those aro more ° often found only in the imagination of ? the writer of blood curdling and horrible JJ death stories. Had it been true that r Father Cassidy or any other respectable witness had said he had seon tbe eyes i open there might have been some cause g ! to write forcibly on the necessity of sub- « mitting such cases to severe test to prove ' if life were extinct. In this case the j coroner, the undertaker, and others saw t the body, and bad there been the * slightest doubt that life was still in it, \ an effort would have been made at re- , animation. The unmistakeable signs of < death, to a medical man, were present, ' and that tho eyes opened and shut five days after we aro sure was not the case. 1 Of course there are cases known to < medical science where eighteen hours ' continuous exertion has resulted in ! restoring animation in an apparently j drowned person, and people have been I in trances and in cataleptic fits, and the : signs of life have been of the very faintest character. None of these things would apply to Captain Bailey, and it seems that some unscrupulous person with a taste for hunting the ghastly is responsible for all the sensation, which the apparently truthfui statement has given rise to in certain quarters.