NOT A TRAGEDY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVII, Issue 28, 31 December 1926, Page 4

NOT A TRAGEDY.

PECULIAR'IDEA OF A JOKE. AUCKLAND, Dec. 30. The blood-stained razor and other evidence of tragedy found on the Queen’s wharf on the night of December 20 have proved to be nothing more than the accessories of grisly humour. The joke did not operate strictly according to schedule, and . the police spent some time in exhaustive inquiry before it »was established that there had not been a double suicide. The sensational discovery was made by the police late at night. An old grey cap and a coat lay at the top of the steps on the end of the wharf. There was an abundance of blood on the steps,.and the tell-tale razor apparently provided the explanation. In a pocket of the coat was a letter reading: “Don’t worry to look for. us. We have failed and cannot face the world any longer. Good-bye.” In spite of the request the police looked very hard that night, and prosecuted numerous inquiries in the days following while waiting for the sea to give up its dead. It now appears that two men staged the “tragedy” for the mystification of a Harbour Board patrolman.