MYSTERY!

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 42, 12 May 1927, Page 1

MYSTERY!

A Hidden Cavern WELLINGTON LIND TREASURE IS ABSENT (From, Our Own Correspondent .) WELLINGTON, Wednesday. It was a perfectly innocent-looking premises that the Hotel Workers’ Union bought recently in Edward Street with the idea of converting the building to suit their requirements, and even when two carpenters arrived early in the week equipped with tools to repair the floor the in terior of the place appeared perfectly harmless. It was while rummaging about looking for loose boards that one of the workmen discovered a ring bolt in the floor, and instead of calling “Open Seasame” and waiting for things to happen, he pursued his own inquiries. The ring bolt held in place a trapdoor which, when lifted, revealed a dark and dismal-looking vault with concrete steps leading from th > healthy daylight of the ground floor to the unknown blackness of subterranean depths. However, leaving his tools on the top, and taking his courage in both hands, the carpenter entered.

At the bottom of the concrete stairway he found not accumulated treasure of a forgotten age, but an unimpressive concrete bath, while away from unis bath on the other side led another flight of concrete steps.

Subsequent investigation revealed that the premises, that will now be used by the members of the Hotel Workers’ Union, was 40 years ago n full swing as a Baptist Church, and, where at one time converts to the flock were immersed in clear, cold water, there will now flourish an organised Land of those who derive their means of existence, not from cold water, but from something with greater kick and something less plentiful and more expensive. The question as to whether the fact of the ancient immersion of their predecessors on the premises will prove an edification to the present-day occupants has not, and probably will not be discussed by the union.