A DETECTIVE'S TRIP.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9611, 4 October 1909, Page 5

A DETECTIVE'S TRIP.

. 'SIR J. G. WARD EXPLAINS. 4* *— ißy Telegraph—Press Association. AUCKLAND, October 2. 'Sir Joseph Ward was asked yester'dpj byfa "Star" reporter if he would slate why Detective Cassells had been sent to -London. The Prime Minister Haid that he was only too : glad to state what he knew of the facts- First of all, the man con-

cerned whose letter to himself had ' been published was quite unknown to ■ him on'his visit'to England in 1907. The man was introduced to him by Mr Wm. Bulcher, of Dunedin. The • introduction took place just as he

(Sii*Joseph) was leaving his hotel • one morning to attend a meeting of the Premiers' Conference. The man informed him that he was leaving for >New> Zealand within a few days, and t asked whether he could give him a »letter of introduction to the Government. This Sir Joseph at once to do, and this was all that transpired. Late in the day, an ordinary letter of introduction to the Acting Prime Minister was left for 'him at the hotel. Sir J-osoph neither saw him again personally nor 'heard of him until after bis return to New Zealand, when the man endeavoured 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 -the 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 Prime Minister said, the man in England neither asked his opinion as to the advisability of coming to New Zealand nor for employmont, nor was the Prima Minister in any way responsible for the man's coming to this country. Sir Joseph said that at a subsequent interview the man again asked him for a position in pub lie service, but he advised him at once that his age rendered such an appointment impossible. The wan said he has hard up, and Sir Joseph t'Said he would enquire whether there was any temporary casual clerical work offering, and if there was that he would advise him in due course. Some days later, a temporary clerk was required in one of the depart- » menta for some special work, the j pay being at the rate of ten shillings per day. When the man was offered it he forwarded the Prime Minister the first of a series of intensely grotesque and impertinent letters, declining at the samb time to accept ten shillings a day, and intimating that his services were of such a character that they were worth £7OO a year at least to start with. The Prime Minister, informed the man, through his private secretary, that there wad not the slightest chance of his employment in the public service of the country. The result of this was that periodically Sir Joseph received letters from him, conveying various threats, and which, on the face of them, die played a Btrangeness of intellect" "These communications he did not jtive any attention to and the only 'thing he now blamed himself "for was his generosity towards the man in not placing the matte* 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 statements made in one of the latter letters

received from him. The man returned to England, and before doing so, and also from there continued to send threatening letters both to Sir Joseph Ward and the .High Commissioner, repeating his intentions upon Sir Joseph's lite. He (Sir Joseph) then handed the correspondence to the police., who, in the ordinary course, advised Scot.

v land Yard. As far as Detective ] Cassells was concerned, his visit to England was not asked for, nor arranged at the Prime Minister's request. What took place was, as he had subsequently learned, that Scotland Yard, prior to his departure, cabled the New Zealand police that the man had disappeared from the town in which he had been located, and could not be tfoimd, 'and it was believed he had come to meet the atearoer upon which the Prime / Minister was travelling, with the Idea of carrying out his threats. The "Prime Minister had no knowledge that Detective CasseHs was going until the day heleit New Zealand, when he was informed that the Police department had considered it essential, in view of the advides they had received from Scotland Yard, to send a detective.