MYSTERY IN PICTON.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20643, 15 February 1929, Page 14

MYSTERY IN PICTON.

STONES BY NIGHT. BAFFLED WATCHERS. NINE WEEKS’ BOMBARDMENT. Nobody in Picton spends the evenings now watching outside the residence of M* W. L. Curtain, on the outskirts of this normal- 1 quiet and placid little town. A few weeks ago half of Picton seined to be congregated in. this locality after nightfall listening to stones crashing on the roof and against the south wall of tms _ cottage. Searchers scoured the vicinity, but in vain; the stones continued to pelt down, and no trace could be found of the, thrower. Finally, Pictoh gave it up. On Saturday night last (says a special correspondent of th.; Evening Post) the writer visited the locality. At about a quarter past S) a stone struck the rob.' of the Curtain residence with violence, bouncing up and then rolling down the iron. The noise might have been heard a block away. A few minutes later the same thing happened again. Later on a sound was heard as of a stone striking the ground. Mr Curtain next morning stated that a third stone hit the roof s m''where between 11 and 12. This mysterious stone-throwing began about nine weeks'ago. Nobody took a note of f-? exact date, but it was a Friday night, and putting two and two to -ether, it seems .to have been Friday, ” ecember 14. About fivt or six stones fell at intervals that night. Thinking some larrikins were about. Mr Curtain went ->ut on to the street, but could sec no one. Later on a neighbour, Mr C. Fredericks, made a search in company with him. but nobody was found. THE HUNT BEGINS. The stones continued to fall intermittently on/ mcceeding nights, hut not apparently every night. At the outset they all fell on the roof, and all on its rear .lope. Then a uumbei of the stones began to strike the south side of the house. Finally, on a stone crashing through the kitchen window, and Ml of the numerous searches by himself and. Mr Frederic s having proved resultless, Mr Curtain ou December 27 called in the assistance the police. During the first few nights after this searches were made by Constables Crowe and Au.’ 1 y assisted by Mr Curtain, Mr Fredericks, and one or two other neighbours. As news of the affair spread, others joined in, until as many as 40 people would spend the evening scouting the locality, the merely cm ions also flocking to the scene and- hanging about the road in front of the house. At first the st i-c'-ing seems to have been haphazard, but for a period it is stated to have ’wc pretty systematic. For 26 nights the bombardment continued without intermission. Las week it began to ease off. No stones fell on Monday night: five fell on Wednesday, one on Friday night, and three on Saturday night. At one period the bombardment is stated to have begun with regularity at 20 minutes to 9. At first it usually ceased at about 11, but afterwards continued up towards midnight. No stones have been known to fall on.to the bouse in daylight, though one of the children is stated to have been struck on the ankle by a stone from some unknown source one evening just before dusk. This is the only time anyone has been hit, though there have been several narrow escapes No stones have been heard after midnight. The front and north 4itle of the house have never beeen struck.- The bombardment has continued wet or fme > and went on as usual - through pouring rain with a chilling southerly gale. THE LINE OF FLIGHT. The only thing known about the line of flight of the stones that fell on the roof is that they strike the rear slopes. The house; stands facing west on to Devon street, about halfway along a level block about a furlong in length. To the north is an empty section with a tall hawthorn hedge around it. On the south is Mr Frederick’s house, about 60 feet distant. There is about 70 feet to 80 feet of open grass from the rear of Mr Curtain’s house to his back boundary, with a fowl run against the back fence. There is also open grass at the rear of Mr Frederick’s house'.

Three, stones have crashed through the kitchen window on the south side wall of Mr Curtain’s house, and the direction of flight has been at an angle from the rear. Outside the window is a bushy growth of young willows about 15 feet in height and fairly dense. Watchers state that they have heard stones crash through these willows and strike the side of the house with violence, ricocheting off on to the grass to the front of the house. This also points to the line of flight being at an angle from the rear. In this direction is about 100 yards of open grass extending across Mr Frederick’s section and the lawn of a dwelling facing the next street. Among the watchers have been a number of well-known and- responsible Picton residents, including Constables Crowe and Audley, Mr T. Flood, a member of the Borough Council, Mr Williams, the borough overseer, and many others. Those of the _ watchers interviewed expressed the opinion that the picketing at times had been too close for any person to have thrown the stones from the open ground at the rear. Further, the stones struck with too great a force to be thrown by hand. Those striking the side of the house also seemed ■ from the way they glanced forward to have come on an almost level line of flight. CARRIES ON THROUGH STORM.

The stones ranged in size from small ones such as could be fired from a boy s catapult to pieces of shingle half a pound or more in weight. Except that a few stones had hit the rear fo Mr Frederick’s house, one large one striking with violence just abow Mrs Fredericks s head one evening. th.> 'ine urns directly on to the Curtain residence Many, however, fell short of the target Four watchers sheltering under Mr Fredericks s front veranda during vhe night of the last southerly storm heard 23 stones fall, three of them on M- Curtains house, and the remainder on the ground at the side.

Baffled by the total failure uo’ fin» she thrower in the open, despite the most careful picketing and scouting comh'ued together with the placing of a around the entire block, ideas began to develop that the throwing must be A.no from some neighbouring residence, possibly out of a window with some nnrdiance such as a trap-gun used for throwing clay pigeons into the air

NEIGHBOURS ALL HAVE ALIBIS

Search in this direction proved equally barren of resxilt. Sucb a proceeding \ra*s only possible from three houses, all onestorey dwellings. It was not reallv .■ acticable from two of- them, and the occupants were the last people in the wo Id to suspect of any such insane proceedmg. In one house everybody had been ac•counted for the time the stone-thvowmer had beeif proceeding. A second house is occupied by a highly-respected maHen lady, and, furthermore, she had ; et it during the Christmas and lie stone-throwihg continued independe itlv of who was in this house. Equally incredible was it that the stones shmild have come from the third house <-/en though, it- was directly in line of (light Its occupant is another maiden ladv of a tamily resident and respected in Picton almost from its foundation. Living wth her is a niece and a male relat-v" a young man belonging to an old uid socially prominent Wellington; family ‘ On top of this, the slone-throwin" had ■ ontinned as usual in the absence in turn of each occupant of this house.

One bright moonlight night a men was seen at the rear of the Curtain rcsiderre who ran with remarkable speed when pursued and gave his pursuers tlm sdp at tlie bottom of the block. On no other occasion has any suspicions person been lound skulking about and the seaHu-rs are emphatic that the stone-throwifi.. has gone on at times when the picketin’ ,ml beating ol the locality has been' too tlioionph for anyone l to havo it from the open.

THEORISTS NONPLUSSED it the search has really be r m as thorough as the searchers believe, and if the occupants ol the houses are ruled out —to include them at all one has to soppose some incredible conspiracy to d< it in turns, with no likely person to take even one turn—then one seems iu be reduced to a theory that the stones came from some nw" Fstant point \n I such

a supposition means indirect fire oyer tree tops with some powerful contrivance silent in action.

Mr Curtain, who has for many yaare been employed at the Picton freezing works, is very anxious that the perpetrator of the nuisance should be caught. His wife and family of four children, ranging in age from nine to 14, have been much upset by it. The whole thing, he says, has been a puzzle to him; for so far as he knows be has not an enemy in the .place. About a year ago he suffered a similar annoyalice, but for two or three nights only. Whether the Picton mystery will have to bo numbered among the unaccountable happenings of this kind of. which -no rational solution is ever found remains to oe seen. If a spook is presumed, it seems to be a very human spook, with a tor home and bed at midnight. A mischievous one, tpo, for one night when Mr Fredericks and .Constable Audley were watching from a paddock across the road at the trout, bang went a lump of clay and stone on the woodwork in the centre _of the French window on Mr r redenck s front veranda, and then bang went a stone on the back roof of Mr Curtam s house Not a soul could be found in the paddock. Another night saw a stone hurtle into Mr Frederick’s back poren racing Mr Curtain’s house, narrowly missing several people. Then again a stone landed gently at the feet of Mr williams, the borough overseer,'one night when he was stopping down to examine something his vigil. Last week a visiting crystai-gazer giv“i P, lc performance was questioned a bon, the stone-throwing mystery. Many people, lie said, were concerned in it, but the culprits would soon be caught and all v. ould be cleared up. The mysterious b /f cl bee " getting lazy, but that mgnt he threw five stones on the house. r, n nights he has carried on with • Curtain family all out for the evening. sometimes he stops when the watchers are planted out, and starts as J?V h€ "L gI Yf I, P a nd go out on to , At other times he carries on indifferently. And all the time every due seems to he a cold one. J