NAPIER.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume II, Issue 110, 3 December 1873, Page 2

NAPIER.

[from oub own correspondent.] November 27. Some little excitement in these dull times comes as a relief, and we have had something lately that, at all events, has caused a good deal of conversation. An article appeared last Monday in the Telegraph bearing on the method of conducting business at the Land Office. The nuthoragif the article evidently knew what he was writing about, and, accepting the Crown Lands Commissioner as the head of the department, and as responsible for every thing that takes place in his office, blamed him and his department for driving colonists away who would otherwise have settled in this province. The writer went on to say that the Land Office had been worked for the benefit of the sheepfarmers, and he furnished instances illustrating the method of conducting business by which those not runholders were prevented from acquiring freeholds. As might have been expected the article caused no little stir, and the next morning the Herald came out in defence of Mr. Sealy, and in the abuse of the Telegraph. Not much "notice, was taken of the defence, because that which was written was not worthy of such a name, and what made it of still less effect was, that to Mr. Sealy himself was attributed the authorship. Be that as it may, however, Mr. Sealy, whois also R.M., after disposing of the police cases of the day, rose, and addressed the two lawyers, a constable or two and a couple of newspaper reporters, and said t hat if he were guilty of the charges brought against him he would not be fit to hold any of the offices he then filled, and he intimated that with the permission of the Government he intended to t ake legal proceedings against his calumniators. The Telegraph the following day published a short, sharp and sarcastic leader on Mr. Sealy’s remarks, and regretted that that gentleman hud not deferred seeking consolation and sympathy to a more opportune time, such as a land sale, when ail present would be able to vouch for the able manner in which he had conducted his duties. I understand that there is a deal more in it than on the surface, and that the first article was written in consequence of a simultaneous application for a block of country having been put in by the occupying runholder’s legal agent under circumstances of questionable validity. There is no denying the fact the Land Office never has been in the best of odours except with sheepfarmers, and from the spirited manner in which it has been attacked by the Telegraph, has brought that plucky journal into more favor than ever. The Herald on the other hand, never having exposed an abuse and always ready to cringe and fawn to any Jack in office is falling in public estimation. As it says itself, it does not covet “ pot-house popularity,” and it certainly is not likely to get it. For a long time past the Athenseum has been the scene of outrages of an extraordinary character, and which until the other day baffled the efforts of police and volunteer constables to discover their source. Strange noises would be heard; stones, weighing several pounds, would come thundering on to the roof, and sometimes through the windows; the librarian’s meat-safe would be rifled of its contents ; the flowers and plants in the garden destroyed, the milk even, left at early dawn by the milkman, would be found to have been dashed against the door, and the can filled with other liquid. People began to think that it was “ spirits,” others thought it “ devilish,” any how, nobody could find out who did it, and in consequence of the close manner in which the premises were watched, it was by no means safe to go round the back of the Athenseum after dark, for anyone might be taken up on suspicion. At length, one policeman struck an independent path of his own, and without telling anyone he was going to watch, hid himself in the garden. The night was pitchdark, and veiy favorable to a manifestation of “ spirits ” or “devils.” Between 9 and 10 o’clock, the little servant girl—a sort of waif, housed, well clothed, and treated more like an old man’s pet by the aged librarian than as a servant—came out of the door and after peering round, began to madly tear up the plants; then going to the safe took from

it the remains of a leg of mutton and tried to throw it over the wall; she then returned to the house, and reported the mischief he had witnessed. Mr. Worgan, armed with a stick and a lighted candle went out and soon discovered the policeman, who threw more light on the subject than any number “ Belmonts ” could have done. The girl subsequently confessed, and since then ghostly sounds, and palpable stones have ceased to worry and annoy.