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Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2594, 1 May 1877, Page 2

The N.Z. Herald publishes a two-column report of a " seance" or lecture given on last Saturday night by. Thomas Walker, trance medium, in the hall of the Mechanics' Institute. As we. gather from the report—which does not give the lecture itself but the pertinent questions put to the medium*by a number of gentlemen well known in Auckland, including Judge Gillies, Mr Luckie and others—Mr Thomas Walker was completely " bowled out " —in other words, detected as an impudent charlatan ; and one gentleman was so convinced of it that he suggested sending for a policeman and giving the medium jn charge as an im-. postor. This Walker, it appear?, is a Lancashire lad of nineteen years of age, and has received the countenance and commendation of Mr J. M. Peebles, who pronounced him to be the most powerful " trance, medium " he has met, or something to that effect. In reality, however, Mr Walker is a youth with a defective education but a fine memory and he makes use of the latter to some

purpose, his addresses being principally extracts from the writings of Andrew Jackson Davis, tho seer of Poughlreopsie, clothed in the somewhat faulty diction of the Lancashire lad. In this he was ; detected on Saturday night, and after the very searching questions put to him and so adroitly fenced, the audience were unanimous in pronouncing him to be a cheat. We are not surprised at this. These lecture mediums profess to be pos- j sessed of the spirit of some departed. Walker's obliging spirit seems to be th* ; of a Rev Dr Stewart, presumably an ed> cated man, but his utterances were remarkable for possessing the defects o: grammar and pronunciation of to j medium. It is stated that Mr Walter has had enough of Auckland and intends to shake the dust off his feet against it. Possibly the hint at a prosecution for imposture has something to do with his intentions. He may perhaps have heard of the prosecution against Slade and others in England, and he does not know how soon some of his hearers may become witnesses against him. Whatever of truth or science there may he in the phenomena of spiritualism, it will not be advanced by resorting to such tricks as that of Mr Walker, which for barefaced impudence is almost unexampled.