FERRY MYSTERY

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1034, 26 July 1930, Page 1

FERRY MYSTERY

WIFE RECEIVES LETTER FROM HUSBAND “I AM IN DESPAIR” Special tv THE SL S NEW PLYMOUTH, Today. A state of suspense and mystery still prevails in the home of Arthur F. J. Hebbend, whose wallet was discovered on the ferry steamer Maori at Lyttelton on Wednesday morning with a note in it reading "Jumped over last night.” The third chapter has unfolded in the form of a letter written by Mr. Hebbend on Tuesday evening in Wellington and received by Mrs. Hebbend yesterday afternoon. The message reads:— "Dear Minnie, —I am in despair. Everything has gone -vrong. I seem to make a mess of everything and, God knows, I have tried Hard enough. I tried betting to recover, but the position only got worse. I am almost out of my mind. I intend to throw myself overboard from the Wahine tonight and so end one of the world’s misfits. God forgive me. Goodbye. I am sure you are better without me.—Arthur.”

The post-mark is July 22, 7 p.m.. Wellington, and the message was written in pencil with apparent haste. The envelope was neatly addressed iu ink. Hope is stm held by Mrs. Hebbend that her husband did not actually carry out his intention and the postman is awaited daily for a letter to reward her faith. She thought she had seen a haunted look in her husband's eyes for a week before he set out on Tuesday morning, said Mrs. Hebbend, but she had had no inkling that her husband would allow his worries to influence him toward suicide. There was no quarrel between them. Mr. Hebbend had risen earlier than usual and had seemed very fussy and restless, while waiting for breakfast, but there had been nothing unusual apart from that when Mr. Hebbend set out with his elder son at seven o'clock. His son had left him in town, Mr. Hebbend having told him to pay an account to a building firm and to tell Mrs. Hebbend that he, Hebbend, was going to Opunake on business and would not return until Wednesday night. It had been discovered subsequently that Mr. Hebbend had paid sufficient into hU wife’s bank account for six weeks' of housekeeping. The obvious mistake made in tho name of the ferry is puzzling Mrs. Hebbend, who said that Mr. Hebbend had made scores of passages in the Maori, and knew both ferries well. Among the theories entertained by Mrs. Hebbend is that either her husband left Wellington yesterday for Sydney on the Ulimaroa or arrived at Lyttelton on Wednesday morning on the Maori, suffering from a deranged mind, which is suggested by the literal wording of the note that was found, “Jumped over last night.” “If my husband really had decided to commit suicide, why did he go to Wellington for that purpose?” asked Mrs. Hebbend. ’’The fact that he went to .Wellington, after having expressed his intention of going to Opunake for a day and a night on business seems to show that he had some set purpose in making the trip to Wellington. I cannot believe that that purpose would be suicide alone. Mr. Hebbend's father lives at Petone. but he could not have gone there or I should have had advice.”

Mr. Hebbend was for many years a phvsical-cujturist and masseur in Wellington, but had entered the building trade. He had built two houses on sections purchased at Fltzroy, and a third boil so is iu the course of erection. The financial arrangements regarding these blinding ventures has apparently -worried Mr. Hebbend. said his wife, while one cheque in favour of a big building firm had not been hononred. Mrs. Hebbend has five children, two boys of 20 and 15, and three girls, of 14. 10 and 6. With a stoic faith Mrs. Hebbend has kept her fears secret from her three young daughters.