THE WAIMATE ADVERTISER. SATURDAY, AUG. 13, 1898.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Issue 12, 13 August 1898, Page 1

THE WAIMATE ADVERTISER. SATURDAY, AUG. 13, 1898.

.Fob some days past the daily papers have teen publishing more or less lengthy, and of course expensive telegrams, hinting at particulars as to the identity of an individual sknown a,s the Igland Bay Hermiif. It is hinted that he is related to certain persons in high positions at Home who are almost named. Evidently if the Press Association's agent at Wellington could with confidence assert that 4ho " Hermit" is related to these persons, no matter ior what good -or bad reasons he has sought to conceal his identity, every detail »nd name would be given "regardless of expense." Surely it must be but a small, certainly a, small minded, section of the public which can derive pleasure or satisfaction brom such news. If it is true that this creature hai respectable connections from whom ho has concealed his whereabouts for many

years, -why should'he not be allowed to close his days in obscurity ? It is nobody's business who he is and if, believing his course to be nearly run, he has revealed his name and connection, the only persons the information can be of interest to are those relatives who have been wondering what his fate ' k has been all these years. Suppo&ing'it to be true that his relations are persons in high society it must be painful enough for them to learn that he has been living in such, a, wretched manner without the added humiliation of their connection with him being jnad« public property. The astonishing thing is that any notice should have been taken of this " Hermit "at all. His hermit mode of. : life hai been a squalid in the extreme one. There was nothing interesting but much that was disgusting about it, as may be gathered from a description of the hermit and his cave supplied to us by a Waimate resident who, with two others, visited him when driving round the Wellington bays a few months ago.