ABOUT GHOSTS.

Taranaki Daily News, 30 April 1921, Page 11

ABOUT GHOSTS.

A NEW PLYMOUTH EXPERIENCE. (By “Fifty-one” in Hawera Star.) A good deal has been cabled recently about an Australian “ghost,” who has unsettled matters considerably by breaking windows and otherwise disturbing the peace. The spiritualists from far and near have been summoned to ths scene in order to try and appease this festive gentleman spirit (or it may be a lady); but so far there has been no result. The police, however, have had the audacity to assert that the disturbances are attributable rather to larrikinism than to supernatural agency. Be that as it may, 1 will tell you a little story of a New Plymouth “ghost,” and how he was laid. When I was a boy there was a great commotion among the occupiers of two residences along the Devon Line, towards Te Henui from the town. Windows were being broken freely at night, and no solution was forthcoming until considerable damage was done. Bang would go a pane of glass, and out would rush the occupants to* try and find the culprit; but while they were searching bang would go another pane. Eventually the “ghost” was laid. It was a boy of one of the residences. He used to go outside and hurl a stone through a window, then slip in quietly and go out again with the searchers. He would wrap a towel around his hand, and whilst the others were busily searching he would thrust his hand through a pane and yell out “there goes another.” But he was found out at last, and sent across the water to school. But let me say that boy was a dare-devil until almost the day of his death. The latest cable message to hand suggests that the Australian manifestations are caused by a “Hun racketter” —another count for the ex-Kaiser to answer.