ANOTHER WAIKATO SENSATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7790, 9 November 1886, Page 5

ANOTHER WAIKATO SENSATION.

A WILD ANIMAL AT LARGE, SEEN AND TRACKED IN BROAD DAYLIGHT. fFKOM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.] Hamilton, Monday. Another monster—saurian or feline, whichever it may be—-has been seen, not this time in the creek, but on the scrub land lying between the road running past Mr. Caetleton'e gate and the Krankton Junotion Station, contiguous to the last half-mile of the railway line before reaching that station from Auckland. It may be as well to give some description of the locality. The road referred to orosses the railway at a right angle, and is the boundary of Mr. Jolly's and Mr. Caetleton'e properties, and in this angle is about half a square mile of land more or less open fern and grass, on the edge of which, close to the railway line, is the slaughterhouse, and over which some cattle and Mr. Qaaltrough's pigs roam. It is however for the most part covered with tall, dense titree gorse and [flax bushes, and through it runs from Mr. Jamee Williamson's swamp land beyond a branoh creek into the main creek in which the saurian was first seen by Mr. Caetleton's boys a month or six weeks ago. Further back the land is all uncultivated till crossing the Hamilton-Whatawhata road, it emerges into Mr. Williamson's swamp, and about a mile away from where the creature was seen on Saturday are two large kahikatea buahes on the HamiltonTuhikaramea road. Mr. Castleton'e homestead is on the opposite eide of the road first referred to as running at right angles with the railway, and on the roadside of bis orchard is a line of tall pines, out of any one of whioh a person would have a good view, aorosß the road, of the stretoh of waste land lying away towards the Frankton station and the Hamilton-Whatawhata Road. On Saturday afternoon five boys, four of them sons of Mr. Castleton, and one a son of Mr. Pope, etationmaster at Frankton, were in the orohard, two of them being up a pine tree, to take a bird's neet when one of them saw a strange looking creature lying on the ground, some thirty or forty yards from the brush fence on the other side the road, in a comparatively open part of the waste land, being short tea-tree. The creature appeared to be gnawing something like a oow s head, but unfortunately the first boy who saw it called out so loudly to his companions to come up the tree that he roused the animal, which rose and commenoed walking slowly away towards the denser scrub. One of the boys, instead of climbing the tree, ran across the road, and striking across to a small hillock in part intercepted its retreat, when the creature turned round and made as if towards him, and the lad made a precipitate retreat. The creature was seen from the tree by three of the other boys, two of them sons of Mr. Castleton, the third being Mr. Pope's lad. They deacribed it as having a large round flat head, more like that of a torn cat than anything else, with rough brown hair and greyish stripes on the body, standing as high as a yearling beast, and with a tail like a cow. The fifth boy was sent at first to fetoh his father, who arrived just too late to see the creature. He at once olimbed into the tree, but while one of his sons was endeavouring to point out to him the direction in which to look, the animal reached the denser scrub, and was lost to sight, Mr. Castleton at once fetohed his man from the field, where they had been working, and both of them proceeded to the spot whioh the boys pointed out as that: at which they first saw the creature lying down; and not far from this, on a narrow scrub track, where the ground was tolerably soft, thsy came upon its tracks, whioh they followed for fully a quarter of a mile, until they entered a dense growth of teatree and gorse jangle, into which the men could not follow it further. The tracks or footprints would denote that the beast was of considerable size, and from the impress on the not very soft ground, weighing not less than two or three hundredweight. They Were exactly similar to those seen recently tn and about Qualtrough and Whites slaughter-house, but the marks of the claws on the end of the toes were in many cases to be seen clearly along the track. The footprints were at regular intervale atong the track, of 2ft 3 or 4 inches in each line, which would give a length of about 4ft Bin from the front leg to the hind one on the same side. Mr. Cattleton inolines to the belief that the beast seen on Saturday Is of the feline species, and not the same as originally aeen by the boys ia the main oreek on the other aide of bis house, and upon his own farm. The boys, whom your correspondent interviewed yesterday, say the animal is not the same as seen by them in the oreek, and which followed one of them over the open ground between the creek and the house, but ie larger, standing higher, and covered not with scales, as that was, but with hair. Considerable excitement was caused when the oiroußutance became known yesterday in Hamilton, and a number of men armed with guns beat up the mixed swamp and jungle between Mr. Castleton'e and Jolly's roads, bat it would be impossible to follow it into its lair in the dense scrub unless tracks were made through it, either by cutting or burning it away. The matter is becoming a serious one if a wild beast—lion, tiger, or panther—is prowling about in such oloee vicinity to the suburbs of the town; but the general belief is that the animal now seen, whatever the first may have been, has escaped from some travelling menagerie, two of whioh have visited Hamilton, one eome IS and the other some few months ago. [BY TELEGRAPH. —OWN CORRESPONDENTS.] Hamilton, Monday evening. Great excitement prevails here respecting the wild animal at large near the Frankton station. To-morrow being a holiday, a muster of the residents ia called for eleven a.m., to go down to the locality with gune and dogs, and endeavour to start and, if possible, kill or capture it. Confirmatory reports of the description given by the Caetleton boys and young Pope have turned up. When your correspondent) visited Frankton, and interviewed the boys yesterday, Master Pope was at the Sunday-school, but he confirms the report of the other boye in every particular, and there is no doubt as to the bona fide of the several boys. It is mortifying to think that the Hamilton saurian should shrink to the mean proportions of an ordinary African lion or Bengal tiger, or even a leopard; but the boys state distinctly that the animal seen on Saturday was totally dissimilar to that which ohased two Ot them at the creek a month ago.