A MYSTERIOUS MAN.

Globe, Volume V, Issue 594, 15 May 1876, Page 3

A MYSTERIOUS MAN.

We take the following from the West Coast Times :—“ Reports having reached Hokikita that a mysterious stranger had been seen by several persons in the vicinity of the Jackson’s Bay Settlement, and some suspicion being felt that he might prove to be Cunningham, the murderer of his mate on Lake Ohou, the Commissioner of Wesllaud Police, Mr James, proceeded to the settlement by the steamer Waipara on her last trip South, for the purpose of making all possible inquiries. The result of his inquiries was to show that some unknown man bad been in the neighborhood, and had evaded observation, tut there was nothing to indicate his exact identity with Cunningham, though his dxess was said to have been similar, and his appearance is as much a mystery to the settlers as it was at first a source of fear. It may have been some one who, while in the bush, had become distracted, and has probably by ibis time perished, or wandered further south. He could scarcely leave northward without being noticed, as the police have everywhere been on the watch. The fi 'st circumstance noticed was the fact of some footprints in the bed of the Cascade river- -of some person whose boots were apparently well worn out. Subsequently a man was seen in the bush by some of the set tlers or their children, dressed rather raggedly, and when approached he stooped down or started away into the bush—a circumstance which aroused suspicion,because as one of the settlers expressed it, it is the instiuct of people there, when out lu the bush, rather to approach each other than to avoid society. He was afterwards seen lower down the river Arawata, and again disappeared. The last time he is supposed to have been seen was close to the township, where a boy saw a strange man, up in a fuschia tree, feeding on the berries. He is not known to have been seen afterwards, and the circumstances still remain surrounded with mystery. He cannot have escaped by sea ; he could scarcely have gone northward without having been seen at some of the ferries; and if he went south towards the Sounds, the chances of his being able to sustain himself for any length of time a'e very small. It is significant that none of the settlers missed any food or clothing, and that none of their houses appeared to have been entered in their absence.”