A SCENE IN A NELSON CHURCH.

Temuka Leader, Issue 808, 31 December 1881, Page 3

A SCENE IN A NELSON CHURCH.

An extraordinary scene, we learn from the Nelson Mail, Occurred in Christ’s Church, Nelson, on Sunday. Just after the officiating clergyman (the Rev S. Poole, had taken his place in the reading desk, a man—accompanied by four little children —entered the church, and unhesitatingly walked up the aisle to the chancel. There he left the children standing in the aisle and went into the choir stalls, taking up his position in one immediately behind, and on a level with, the floor of the reading desk. One of the officers of the church took charge of the four children, who appeared quite dazed, and accommodated them with a pew. Meanwhile the voluntary ceased and the

service commenced, the man standing immediately behind Mr Poole and looking down the church over his right shoulder. The confession was made, the absolution read, and then came the Lord sPrayer, and as soon as the strange visitor’s ear caughc the familiar words his countenance, up to this time dark and gloomy, lighted up, and, with apparent earnestness and fervency, he joined in the prayer. The clergyman, despite the awkwardness and disagreeableness of his position, maintained Ids self-posession, and with unfaltering voice, continued to read the prayers These being over, the organ struck up the chant for the “ Venite, and -the choir commenced to sing the hymn of praise, but in all other parts of the church there was a dead silence, for every eye was fixed on the intruder who, evidently moved by the music, began to walk up and down on the space behind the clergyman. There could now no longer be any question what was the matter. The man was perfectly mad ! The “ Yenite ” concluded, there was the usual pause while the clergyman pronounced the Psalms for the day, and then the chanting recommenced. More and more excited became the stranger ; he increased the pace of his uneasy trump over the yard and half of the floor on which he had to walk ; he gnashed his teeth under the growing excitement, and now and then he paused to glare and to make grimaces now over the right, now over the left shoulder of the clergyman. ! One or two ladies who were in pews irame Lately under the reading desk here made a move, and this was the signal for a general stampede. The congregation was an unusually large one, but within the space of a very few minutes none were left within the walls except a few men. A parley was commenced with the madman, who had now stepped into the reading desk and taken, up the position vacated by the clergyman, who had retired when he saw the congregation disperse. The man’s desire appeared to be to preach and no persuasion could induce him to leave his point of vantage, while if any approached too pear he showed fight. [Jnder the circumstances it was thought best to send for the police, and three of. them shortly arrived, and after a short but hard struggle he was handcuffed and removed to the lock-up. The requisite number of doctors and Justices of the Peace were summoned, and he was committed and conveyed to the Asylum. The unfortunate man was a storeman in one of the leading mercantile firms in Nelson, and was a sober, industrious, and generally respected man. About 18 months since he lost his wife, and was left a widower with a family of six young •hildren. He had for some time past been ailing, and during the last day or two had displayed symptoms of insanity.