"TRUTH" ON THE TRAIL OF THE SPOOK

NZ Truth, Issue 1142, 20 October 1927, Page 1

"TRUTH" ON THE TRAIL OF THE SPOOK

"Truth " Investigates

IN tho case of the alleged scare at Waihi, the surrounding circumstances are somewhat unusual and "N.Z. Truth's" investigations on the spot may go a long way towards allaying any future alarms. To go back to the origin of the recent widely-advertised affrightment, we find the good old combination of a man and a maid bound for somewhere in the later hours of the evening. In a section of the town much overshadowed by trees, slumbering in the silent solitude which pertains to hedged lanes, where crossed branches creak and sweeping tendrils sough in the night wind . . . ; Houses here and ..there throw, a be- ' latecl ■'' gleam^f rotti *sttme fthstlf^cuttained^ window which serves only to accentuate the mystery of the night . They see — or imagine they see — a figure im white which utters some strange noise. Their's not to reason why, the swain is no Sir Galahad and any apparition in white must of necessity be a ghost. No pause to reason that ghosts have their union and that 'tis but at the witching hour of midnight that they walk. No; man and maid take to their heels without pausing to investigate further. Thus is a new "ghost" scare set afoot.

A night or so later a boy about 14 sets out to deliver newspapers not much more than two hours after sunset. Maybe he has heard his elders speaking of the alarming experience of the courting couple ... he makes his way along the quiet streets, which are white beneath the lights where there are any — and fade away into a dim and shadowy line where there are none. Not long afterwards the boy is gasping out the fact that he has seen the ghost to one of the staff at the police station. It carries a light — or there is a light -about it; it wheezes; there is something white about it. The constable, only too willing to scotch such scares, mounts his bicycle and hastens in the direction of the alarm. He finds in the vicinity of the alleged ghost an old man who has walked some distance; he has been looking at some of his property. He is a feeble old fellow; on his back he carries a bag, which is white; in his hand is a lamp. And he leans against a tree, tired and short of breath, one arm resting as old men have a habit of resting, in a horizontal position. As 'he rests he wheezes, for he is old and his breath comes hard. There is nothing else in the vicinity to give rise to the impression that any ill-balanced person has been playing spooks. A night or so later a well-known and respected professional man is

Weird and Wonderful Newspaper Stories of Midnight Happenings In A Mining Township THE MODEST MAYOR-^AND THE SUPERNATURAL niTtntllltltlllitnnnm>liMMiliiiiiili>tiiiiiriutiniHiliMiiiitiiiiiiltrMt]MlilMrtiilli rlliilllir|[lMlllllilllilu>iiiill>liiiiit!tlillitillllillllMlltt>r>lllilliliiliMlllilliiiiMili>iililMilllilMltillilliltlliilll>nllilliiiiit>iii>lntruillililMiiiii!iuilltHli>iliiiitiiu!iiil niiiuullliltllirillMiiiiiiiiin iiiHU<iutiiiiiiiiit!iiiiini>iniuiutHTiiiitMitiiiiliiiitliHiMiiiiiMtniiiiiiii>rrTTiniiiiiniiitiiiiiiiiiiiitiiiiiiniinittuiiuujiu>liinnt niiiiMtmiiiiill^ ;. wilMilllllimnnuufitMOTimnniHin-mnmrnmiHiiiumHiiitHmnMiHimiMiiumnnmiminifmin niriiinMMtnnniitMTniiiiiiiinitmiiHHiiimHniiimiiinHiiiiimuHHfuiHiiifiHiHirtiniinnnmuMHnnMMUiH^ 1| - (From "N.Z. Truth's" Special Commissioner.) 1| H It takes but little to set going a "ghost" story in any town, but in a mining centre where the humdrum || || monotony of the daily round has little relief, a series of weird and wonderful- happenings founded upon one || 11 nebulous incident may grow to considerable dimensions, more particularly if fostered by persons of credulous i[ H disposition. |! |1 From time to time, Thames, Paeroa and Waihi have had so-called "ghost" scares. There would seem to be a || |I tendency to specialize in them; whether it is the quality or quantity of the liquor which is sold in the district — or the || JI receptive mental calibre of the miners — may be left to the imagination. ([ iihitinmHHIUaMHHIIIIIIIIHIIIIHIHUIIWIIHIIHHIUWWIItum

hastening home in his car about. 1 a.m. along the avenue in that part of the town where the young couple met with their scare. There are trees on either side; some are stately pines, but others are lighter in color. And as he speeds homeward he has — as he himself admits — no thought in his head of ghosts or ghost players. As the tree trunks flash past, the white road springs up to meet the brilliant headlights. Then he thinks he sees a white figure beneath the fringe of trees and at the same time believes he -hears a man's voice. No thought of ghosts occurred to him; neither did he think that it might he a summons to his car or himself to stop. .' ._. . . v .__... r^^;*\fyas.tnofc?unfcUy^^ arrived horned that he thought he should, perhaps, have stopped to see if he was wanted. He did not report the incident to the press or to the police, but — as he himself admitted — he rather foolishly mentioned it to persons in the shop from which the boy had been delivering papers. Very naturally, this incident passed from mouth t o mouth and became embodied in the ghost story — and so into the columns of the papers. The next alarm came from a boy who says he saw "something" white in another section of the town. But on investigation this proved to be a piece of white material, which, it is possible, some practical joker had placed on a hush. Nothing very alarming in any of these incidents, it will be agreed, and for a night or so nothing further was heard of the alleged ghostly apparition. Then in the early hours of Monday morning — 3.30 a.m. is the time given — when there was a regular hurricane blowing, the spook is said to have made its call on the house of the mayor of Waihi. Mayors, of course, are conspicuously retiring people and the fact that it was the chief civic dignitary of the town who had been honored with a visitation was not made, public knowledge so far as the Auckland or local press was concerned. But the visitor was certainly very up-to-date for a spook, as the account of the intrusion makes only too evident. For one thing, the ghost was stated to have carried a torch. Yet, in spite of the glare of the light being shone into the room where the mayoress lay abed, she was able to give a very vivid description of the apparition behind the flashlight. Then the door blew open — so goes the tale — and the spectre entered the passage. Shock affects ■ different people in different ways — some shriek some are dumb. The mayoress was dumb. More remarkable still — amazingly remarkable ; it might be said — she remained dumt until she saw 'her husband when morning came. And this in spite of the rumor which is current that the good man was awake and reading in a neighboring room! But as will transpire when this story is read to its end, the mayoress made a sad mistake, for who could better lay the Waihi ghost than the mayor himself? Yet the chance was lost. However, not the story, for that has had a wide circulation in the Dominion, though with becoming modesty the mayor has left himself out of it. Naturally, rumors, even if discredited by all level-headed citizens— and it is safe to say that in Waihi they are in the great majority— have a way of coming to the eai-s of the police and busybodies have been linking up a certain young business man with the spooky visitations. A farmer south of Waihi had fQi some time been making strenuous efforts to obtain, some phosphorus with which to treat oats. He had placed an order with the young man's employer and there had been an effort made to obtain this

peculiar substance from Auckland, but so many had been the difficulties in the way that the farmer finally had to resign himself to going without it. The business man in question suffers from a certain peculiar mental affliction at this time of the year — a fact which is no secret, but he is an esteemed citizen and the last person to indulge in any such crazy prank as spook-walking. Gossip, therefore, turned to his assistant and it was rumored that he had obtained the phosporus and was making use of it to indulge in a series of pranks. "Truth's" representative interviewed him; he made no bones about the fact that he had been interrogated by the seniorsergeant in charge of the district,^; **!:Wht*lfad*b^^ his integrity. This was later corroborated by the police. He certainly did not appear to be the type of young man who would indulge in such foolishness. With the exception of the fact that

some person had walked across an unset concrete path leading to the house of another very respected citizen before the hour of nine one night and had left his footprints, but had not called at the house so far as the occupants knew, there have been no other "ghostly" visitations in or around the town so far as "Truth" was able to discover. When the first rumor of the spookplaying person was noised abroad, many of the young men of the town banded themselves together. Armed with cudgels and road metal, they scoured the to\vn after dark, determined to give any fool they found "playing the goat" a warm time. They met with no success. One night they made their way to an old building partly dismantled — it used to be an old boarding-house in more palmy days and stands at a cross-road on Seddon Avenue in the west end of the town.

It was considered that this might have been the headquarters of the "goat" or "ghost." .-. The old building was bombarded with road metal and raided. No one was found inside, but a piece of white curtain was discovered. "Truth's" representative visited this ancient dwelling, which is almost hidden by a straggling hedge and has doubtless harbored many a swagger — or drunk. Inside was an old mattress, a pair of broken scales and an old black feather boa. Hanging to the window frames were three old white muslin cur-

. tains, about five feet or so in length. In the dilapidated back porch was a piece of the same curtaining and along a track leading from the house between thick blackberry briar there hung 'on the brambles two pieces of the same material, which might quite easily have been torn off during a huri ried passage. There were signs of glass freshly broken and many pieces of bluestone lying about. But within a stone's-throw of this | melancholy dwelling a woman was re--1 moving her child's toys from the verandah and when asked if she had received any scares from the alleged ghost she displayed no anxiety or alarm. She admitted that she did not go out =. I SE?* I a t--Pifrh^but.y^^t'e;; f was..np.thli>'g: meanor. ■ y'■ '„,.-•■" "Truth's" investigator walked the i thoroughfares of the town until the • early hours of the morning and he > saw no signs of panic or even anxiety. About 8 p.m. he saw two little boys ; and a girl come out of a dark side-

street and wend their way townwards, but they did not display any sign of fear. On another occasion "Truth" saw three girls leave the town a few minutes before midnight and walk most unconcernedly into the west-end and along Seddon Avenue, where they were lost to sight among the trees which overshadow the road on both sides. They were unaccompanied and the night was brilliantly moonlight; just such a night as a ghostly visitor might choose. True it is that there are in the eastend of the town two pure white goats. One may be a billy-goat, but the other was a most respectable nanny with a gambolling kid to look after. If the billy had been straying and indulging in any springtime flirtations it would not be surprising, but his companion was above suspicion. One apparition all in white "Truth's" representative did see — and not long before midnight —

but it proved to be one of the elusive sex on her way home. The only other alarming visions were occasional miners going o n the midnight shift. One carried a shining billy and had a white shirt-front, while another had his coat open showing a wide expanse of white shirt. Business in the town appeared to b e quite normal and conversation with numerous citizens of various callings in life failed to disclose any feeling of alarm. There were many couples about the streets at night, while young men

and girls went about their love affairs seemingly as usual. As a topic, the "ghost" was rarely mentioned, unless the subject was deliberately brought up in the course of conversation. "Truth's" contention is that what was possibly one isolated instance of scare has been magnified into a foolish newspaper story. Having been set going, there has been a reluctance to let the matter drop on the part of one who might be expected to display more mature common-sense and a better understanding of the calibre of his fellow-townsmen. This understanding being to all appearances lacking, it behoves "Truth" to take; the publjc into its confidence, i>~th^#hbse^^ 'judge for themselves, while those who do not live there may be put wise to the manner in which a "ghost" yarn is fostered and foisted on to longsuffering townspeople. The Mayor of Waihi is one William Miller Wallnutt, one-time of Limerick,

Ireland; grandson of Captain the Hon. Hugh B. Wes-tropp-White, R.N., one-time commander - in - chief of the Irish Coastguards. "Who's Who In New Zealand" will tell you the rest. Beside being Mayor, "Billy" Wallnutt has for years taken a great interest in spiritualism; he is also special correspondent on the spot for the Auckland "Star," journalism being one of his side-lines in life, for he has conducted in the past the "Waihi Chronicle" and worked for the "Waihi Daily Telegraph," When "Truth" says that "Billy" Wallnutt, Mayor of Waihi, has taken an interest in spiritualism, it rather understates the case. He has been — possibly still is — a keen enthusiast in matters which

pertain to the astral plane. At one time he might be said to have been the moving spirit of a select spiritualistic circle at Waihi. This little circle had various activities. There may be those who reside in Waihi who remember them. When the circle disbanded, Waihi's mayor continued his dealings with psychic phenomena. To assist him he had the enthusiastic services of one McWilliams, who not long ago left the town. McWilliams, it is said, acted as medium or "control" for Wallnutt, and many were the communings which took place in a room of one of Waihi's public offices, where things of this world are more generally dealt with. The "ghost" having visited the mayor, who — in his capacity as special correspondent of the Auckland "Star" — had already passed on the awesome tidings of the Waihi scare for public consumption, it goes without saying that here is further "copy" which may help to fill the hungry maw of a daily paper with two competitors. But with meritorious modesty, the mayor, newspaper correspondent and - spiritualist, refrained from mentioning the fact that the Waihi "ghost" — as seemed only right and proper — had paid a call at the residence of the chief civic dignitary and the principal justice of the peace for the town. While Wallnutt, as correspondent for the "Star," makes considerable capital out of the terrified - householders and provides a thrill from the wells of his imagination and Dame Rumor's tattle, he refrains from giving to the public, the rumor that the "ghost" which his wife is said to have seen was probably himself going to the front door of his house with a light in his hand to close it when the gale had blown it open. For that is what Dame Rumor is saying in Waihi. "Truth" does not believe for en*

Nor are they flattered with the allegation that they are in a state of terror. But it is thanks to their mayor in his capacity of journalist that they are so described. It would perhaps be thought that Mayor William Miller Wallnutt would have done something tangible to allay the state of terror which prevails, for beneath his alarming reports there is more than a suggestion that the police are rnotjcoping .with^e-^yMatipnivand township is being terrorized. - / * f A shocking state of things! If not in his capacity as mayor, then in that of justice of the peace surely he might organize a squad of special police,' or vigilantes, to patrol the town and save hard-working miners the necessity of committing passwords to memory. Or, again, an appeal to that terror of the evil-doer, Commissioner Mcllveney, would not fall upon deaf ears, coming from a mayor and justice of the peace!

At Midnight Hour

None of these alternatives seem to have occurred to Mayor Wallnutt. Rather would it appear that he has subordinated his dignity as mayor to that of "scare" journalist on a lineage basis and has set out to belittle and ridicule his' fellow-townsmen with the reiterated statements that "sane men and women, hardy miners and their wives are living ih a state bordering on hysteria." All of which statements hang upon possibly one foolish prank on the part of a person with a distorted sense of humor or an ill-balanced mind. As for the Auckland "Star," it cannot be said that it comes out of the affair very well. That a reputable daily paper read by thousands should lend itself to such hocus-pocus is amazing. If the Waihi "ghost" story is worthy of the space it has lately had devoted to it, surely the right and proper thing to do would be to send to the scene of terror a tried member of the staff who might devote himself to a thorough investigation. As the position stands, it reflects no credit on those responsible for giving credence to the scare. The consensus of opinion in Waihi is that the whole affair has been .a gross exaggeration which trivial incidents that have transpired in no way warrant. The sooner the "ghost" is laid for good and all the better it will be for all concerned and the remaining dignity of the town itself.