WELLINGTON NEWS NOTES. (From Our Own Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, September 25.

Otago Witness, Issue 2690, 4 October 1905, Page 53

WELLINGTON NEWS NOTES. (From Our Own Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, September 25.

The Cabinet has under consideration the case of the prisoner Daniel Swan, who was recently sentenced to death for the murder of his wife at Invercargill on the night of June 28. No conclusion ha-s yet been arrived at in regard to the petition which was recently received graying for the clemency of the Crown. In a letter received in "Wellington by the last English mail, Mr Watfaeford, M.H.R., expresses his hopefulness of being able to shortly float a company to work the ironsand deposits of New Zealand. That disturbing element, the alleged "ghost,"' which caused something of a " eca-re " in the Mitchell town district a few weeks ago, is supposed to have changed its scene of operations. At anyrate. stories have come to the Post from the Hutt district concerning a figure, which bears an aspect very similar to the phos-phorous-illumined figure which caused excitement in the south- western part of the city. A woman is sa.id to be lying dangerously ill at the Taita as a result of shock caused by the sudden appearance of a strange figure. A girl at the Waiwetu received a severe shock to her nervous system. A man residing in the region known as " Skylown " fainted from the shock of the strange figure appearing without warning, and a man going to his home at Ngahauranga was so badly scared that

he lost his presence of mind and bolted. The victim of the latter adventure is said to have seen a tall figure dressed in a long dark overcoat. On the latter article; being thrown open, there appeared in phosphorous the outline of a coffin on the vest, with the words "Are you prepared to meet your doom?" Another report states that the perpetrator ot these ghastly jokes went to a lonely house in the Hult district one evening, knocked at the door, and when the door was opened the strange figure that confronted the woman of the house gave her such a shock that she fainted. Her piercing screams attracted neighbours. The senseless practical joker is thought to be afflicted with religious mania