FERRY MYSTERY

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 256, 25 July 1930, Page 13

FERRY MYSTERY

Passenger Missing K NOTE FOUND Wife Interviewed Dominion Special Service. New Plymouth, July 24. Filled with pathos was the sequel to the mysterious discovery on the steamer Maori at Lyttelton yesterday morning of a note reading “Jumped over last night” by the side of a wallet containing papers belonging to A. F. J. Hebbend, of Tupoki Street, Fitzroy, New Plymouth. A Christchurch message published this evening stated that the chief officer of the vessel picked up a wallet, which contained the note referred to, behind a deck ventilator. It also contained a number of accounts addressed to a resident of New Plymouth. The chief steward of the Maori reported that there was no man of the name mentioned on the accounts on board on Tuesday night, and no inquiries had been received regarding any person supposed to be missing, The police, it was added, had the matter in hand, but believed it to be a hoax. Wife Interviewed.

These facts were placed before Mrs. M. Hebbend, of Tupoki Street, to-night. “No, I have heard nothing from Christchurch,” said Mrs. Hebbend, in reply to the opening question, but when she heard the whole story she burst Into tears. “Yes, it is my husband,’ she said. „ , “Mr. Hebbend left home on Monday morning,” said Mrs. Hebbend. “I have not seen him since. He was dressed in his best grey suit. He did not say where he was going nor when he would be back. He did not say good-bye.. He has been worrying about his business for a long time —he is a builder. I cannot understand IL” Mrs. Hebbend was loath to think that the worst had happened, and was Inclined to the suggestion that Mr. Hebbend may have lost his memory. One piece of evidence gave her hope. That was the curious use of the past tense in the laconic note discovered—- “ Jumped over last night.” Hebbend originally lived in Wellington, where he was a builder before the war. Some years were spent in the same occupation at Raetlhl until four or five years ago, when he came to New Plymouth and engaged in the building and bricklaying trade, in which he was assisted by his elder son. Hebbend has two sons, aged 19 and lo respectively, and one daughter.