JUST A JOKE.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 18888, 31 December 1926, Page 17

JUST A JOKE.

HOW AUCKLAND "TRAGEDY" WAS STAGED. [THE PEE SB BpeeliU Service,] AUCKLAND, December 30. The bloodstained razor and other evidences of tragedy found on the Queen's Wharf on the night of December 20th, have proved to be nothing more than the accessories of grisly humour. The joke did not operate strictly according to schedule, and the police spent some time in an exhaustive enquiry before it was established that there had not been a double suiojde. The sensational discovery was made by the police late at night. An oTd grey cap and a coat lay at the top of the steps on the end of the wharf. There was an abundance of blood on the steps, and the tell-tale razor apparently provided the explanation. In the pocket of the coat was a letter reading: "Don't worry to look for us. We have failed, and cannot face the world any longer. Good-bye. . . W. S." In spite of the request the police looked very hard that night, and prosecuted numerous.enquiries in the days following, while waiting for the sea to give up its dead.

Tt now appears that two men staged the "tragedy" for the mystification of the Harbour Board patrolman. An opportunity for a demonstration of electronic reactions was missed, since it is believed that a blood test might have revealed that the most "convincing" part of the picture had its origin in a butcher's shop.