A DETECTIVE'S TRIP.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 208, 7 October 1909, Page 4

A DETECTIVE'S TRIP.

Silt J. 0. WARD EXPLAINS. , Sir Jospoh Ward, asked if he would ' slate why Detective Cassells had been sent to London, said that he was on-.v : too glad to state what he knew of the , facts. First of all, the man concerned whose letter to himself had been published was quite unknown to him on h,s visit to England in 11)07. The man was introduced to him by Mr. Win. Buleiicr, of Duncdin. The introduction took place just as he (Si, Joseph) was leaving his hotel one morning to attend a meeting of the Premiers' Conference. The nun informed him that he was leaving for Nov Zealand within a few days, and asked whether he could give him a letter of introduction to the liovernmont. This Sir Joseph at once agreed to do, and this was all that transpired. Late in the day, an ordinary letter of introduction to tile Acting-Prime Minister was left for him at the hotel. Sir Joseph neither saw him again personally nor heart Of him until after his return "to Xew Zealand, when the man endeavored to get an interview with him. However, owing to the pressure connected with the opening of the session, it was deferred for a few days. When Sir Joseph subsequently saw him he arrogantly asked for an appointment to lhe°public. service, and declared such was promised to him by the Prime Minister before he left England. He was informed that what he stated was quite untrue, and that no promise of any kind had been made. As a matter of fact, the Prune Minister said, the man in England neither asked his opinion as to the advisability of coining to Xew Zealand, nor for employment, nor was th< Prime Minister in any way responsible for the man s coining to this country. Sir Joseph said that at a subsequent interview the man again asked him for a position in the public service but he advised hiin at once that his'agc r;ndered such an appointment impossible.. The man said he was "hard up," and Sir Joseph said lie would enquire whether there was any temporary clerical work offering, and if there were that he would advise him in due course Some days later a temporary clerk was required in one of the departments for some special work, the pay being at the rate of ten shillings per day. When the man was offered it lie forwarded the Prime Minister the first of a scries of intensely grotesque and impertinent letters, declining at the same time to accept ten shillings a day, and intimatinu that his services "were, of such a character that they were, worth .C7UO a year to start with. The Prime .Minister informed the man. lliroiisrli his private secretary, that 'there 'win not the slightest chance of his employment iu the public service of Hie country. The result of this was that periodically Sir Joseph received letters from liim.' eouveymg various threats, and which oe the face or them, displayed a strangeness of intellect. These communications he did not give any attention to and the only tiling he now blamed himself for was his generosity towards the man in not placing the matter at once in the hands of the police, with a view to his prosecution. The Prime .Minister said he knew nothing whatever of the man, or that he had a- wife and family in the Old Country, excepting the siafoments made in one of the latter letter i received from him. .

The man returned to England, and before doing so, and also from there continued to send threatening- leltei-a both to Sir Joseph Ward and the Hiall Commissioner, repeating his intentions upon Sir Joseph's life. He (Sir Joseph) then handed the correspondence to the police, who, in the ordinary course, advised Scotland Yard. As far as Detective Cassclls was concerned, his visit to hngland was not asked for, nor arranged at the Premier's request. What took place was, as he subsequently learned, that Scotland Yard, prior to his departure, cabled the New Zealand police tint, the man disappeared from the town in which he had been located, and could not he found, and it .was believed r ne had come to meet the steamer upon which the Prime Minister was travelling with the idea of carrying out his threats. The Primo Minister had no knowledge that Detective Cassclls was going until the day he left Xew Zealand, when sie was informed that ihe Police Department had considered it essential, in view of the advices they had received from Scotland Yard, to send a detective.