FROM THE SEWER

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 411, 21 December 1932, Page 6

FROM THE SEWER

MYSTERY OF WEIRD MISCELLANY OF ARTICLES. WAR MEDAL AND MONEY. How and why they come there is a complete mystery. Indeed, the only thing which can be stated with certainty is that they are tlrere. The whys and wherefores rnust be left to the imagination. . In a sewer man-hole at the corner of Egmont and St. Aubyn Streets, New Plymouth (says the Taranaki Herald), just in front of the railway station, a man was working, cleaning out a length ■ of about eight feet of sewer which had become partially blocked with gravel. As he shifted the obstructions he brought to the light of day such a miscellany of articles as could scareely be imagined. One of the first things which came from the sewer was a war service medal, inscribed "A. McLeod, R.S. us.," attached to a gold watch chain. Two threepenny pieces, three pennies and a halfpenny followed. Then came a compass, a dessert spoon, a fork several salt spoons, a pair of sp'ectacles in a case, a length of fine gold chain, several bullets and cartridge cases of all sizes and descriptions, a buckle, a gold watch key, a pocket knife, a Jew's harp, a motor tyre valve, safety pins, a carpenter's punch and a dozen other articles of doubtful usage. All this has collected in the space of three years and accumulated within a five feet radius from the man-hole. The man-hole is situated at the foot of a short decline and apparently the articles dropped were too heavy for the water to carry. Mr. C. Clarke, the borough engineer, states that he believes that if the sewer were completely clearsd out articles would be found similarly littered over the whole length from Egmont Street to Eliot Street. Here the sewer has Very littler fall and the articles would naturally lie. Some of the articles will be kept at the borough yard for exhibition purposes.. The war service medal was given to Mr. E. J. Carr, local secretary of the R.S.A., who will endeavour to locate its owner.