The Tichborne Trial.

Southland Times, Issue 5089, 19 November 1884, Page 2

The Tichborne Trial.

£By Telegraph.] Wellington, Nov. 18. The reliase of the Ticbborne Claimant is accountable for the publication nt a rather late peiiod of some fresh evtdoncs relau'ng to thit eeh-biated trial. Snm^ three or iour years ago tho Defence Department oi: this colony rumored to Invercar^ill from Mount Cook Barracks, Wellington, a number of shot and cartridge casen, some of which bore the name of the ship 0.-prey, aod dates varying from 1844 to 1856. Very little notice appears to have been paid to the circubi stance at the time, and it was soon lost sight of. Recently, however, the Department has been removing a number of ammunition cases from the old stores in the barracke,in order to deposit them in the brick stores which have been just completed, and in the process the men have eomo across several additional casts marked " Tianeport Osprey," dated variously, 1844, 1846, 1854, and 1856. ari-' i.. .--ring the names of their d-4'Diui ■•«, _•' f :T MeiboHrne," 'J for Hobar'," A for Sydney." These facts tend to pjvivo bey- n i doubt that between 1844 .md 1850 a : |,:"p named the O^p.-oy did truU> to A;i?tr..l.-i,*and it will be remembered that ditriiijr the progress of tne Tit-'iborne t = -jv: she Claimant stated that on tho loss of Uc B«!la he was •picked up off the South American coast by a vessel called the 0.-rpny, noun.] for Melbourne. Enquiries ar that time resulted in the discovery that there wiis no i coord of any hhip of that name havicg visited Port Phillip; the only -Osprey known there bcin*,' a schooner' wliic-h had plied between Melbourne und G-aelong. The ammunition cases in qiestion were brought to New Zaaland from the sister colonies at the time of the Maori war, and have remained packed in Mount Cook barracks ever since.