AN AMATEUR DETECTIVE.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2298, 29 July 1880, Page 2

AN AMATEUR DETECTIVE.

A good many people in Oamaru have had their curiosity “aroused during the past few weeks, by the visit of a mysterious stranger attired in a fashionably cut suit of tweed, who arrived one day, no one knew from where, and who has since been seen in all sorts of unexpected places, both by day and by night. Who or what he was no one could say, unless it was the proprietor of a well-known hotel, at Oamaru, to whom the stranger represented he was a detective officer from Melbourne, on a professional visit to New Zealand. His business apparently was of a very complicated nature, for several weeks elapsed without anything definite being accomplished. During this time he was stopping at the hotel before alluded to, and by all accounts making bimself “ quite at home.” But everything must have an end—even an hotelkeeper’s patience —and on Saturday last the detective suddenly informed Ins host that he was unexpectedly summoned away to Dunedin, but would be' bade shortly. On the same day he arrived, not in Dunedin, but in Timaru. where he quickly allowed it to leak out that he was a detective officer from the the “other side,” come over here to Timaru to arrest a Chinaman for a murder committed in Victoria. Now, when our local detective heard this he at once pricked up his oars, and puttingtwo and two together, he caused enquiries to he made, and a warrant being procured from Oamaru, the sham detective was arrested hist night by a “ brother professional.” He was brought up before the Timaru Bench this morning and charged with obtaining board, lodging, and cash to the value of £G, and on the application of Inspector Pender was remanded to Oamaru. We shall await his further adventures with interest.