A DIRTY LIAR.

NZ Truth, Issue 80, 29 December 1906, Page 4

A DIRTY LIAR.

TARANAKI'S TERRIBLE TALETELLER. A Creditable Exftib. Agent. Sandbagged m His Mfnd ! This paper hates to chronicle the existence' of awful liars m the place m which it lives. The' daily . papers, most practised, personal, and perfidious, hold a monopoly of the Ananias game, and are lettiii-g shares out now at so. much per gross. Last Week (t,_ come to the point) "Truth" made re- , ference to a chap named' Hooker, who alleged that he had .been sandbap-n-e-d near the Museum arl^|'leftV■i^>•g• the exhibition rather late ' one night.,' Jut not until after the majority vof the public had left. There was a wealth of detail about *tbe " _ra^dlkKgin?, of Hooker, so much so, m fact, that the varu was disbelieved- a'hd m the end the black bottle -.of oblotivty fe'sl on him and smothered his character, and did -other things whioh need not be particularised. The writer expressed doubt about the man ? being sandba.fe;ed, but that went by the board, and it was only through the persistency and insistency of the detectives (Gibson and Reg. Ward) that

THE FOOL FELLOW who runs the Taranaki. Court at the Zihdshun, caved m and said - that his yarn was all flam. Well, that's. a nice thing for anybody to say. - .If this person, this Har, this cow ihilk province scavenger 'Hooker—the Hooker who has been running the Taranaii Court— admits that he hasn't ".-been robbed, or sandbagged, or anything done to him at all, how are we soihg to treat the fellow? It -is. a public scandal, and requires renovation. When pressed by the .'tecs he said there wasn't an atom of truth m his blasted yarn of sandbagging. He broke down under a crucial test, and the more the tests the -less was he able to answer them. So he stood, and still stands, as a man apart -m that Zibishun, of whom nobody but a stlranger takes notice and who fervently wishes he was born a glass with a. hole m the ton. It is an awful thing to be branded thus, but that's Taranaki's own fault. If Hooker wanted notoriety he got it m last week's "Truth" ; if he still hankers after notoriety he will get it m this week's issue of the same paper. For he told' Detectives Ward and Gibson that his statement about bein^ sandbagged and robbed *ttas a lie, so they stopped further enquiries somewhat abruptly.