EXTRAORDINARY AFFAIR.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2884, 22 October 1895, Page 3

EXTRAORDINARY AFFAIR.

A surprising story is told in connection with the disappearance of a Chinaman at Alexandra A constable telegraphed a few days ago that he was informed that a body had been found on the beach of the river. The body was conveyed to Alexandra, and as when found the hands and feet were firmly tied together, and as a stone was tied round then, ck,there was every reason to suspect foul play. Arrangements were made for holding an inquest, and the missing Chinaman's brother was called to identify the body, but he failed to do so. Further examination then revealed the fact that there was no human body at all. A sheepskin had been used to make the face ; pig bones to make the arms and legs, and the entrails of an animal, probably a sheep, to make the body. A set of uoat's teeth gleamed in the mouth, and altogether the make-up was perfect. Of course the inquest proceeded no further. Meantime nothing has been heard of a missinsr Chinaman, and Inspector Paruy being dissatisfied leaves for Alexandra to investigate.

Fuller particulars of this most successful hoax are given in the Otago Daily Times from which we gather that the missing Chinimau'sname was Kong Wah Jun, that he had made money at the diggings, and was on his way to the Flowery Land, that he visited his brother at Alexandra into whose hands hojdeposited £4OO, that he went to Batcher's Gully to say good bye to his friends, and has not been seen since. The story of the finding of the body, and its removal to Clyde, of the summoning a jury and two medical men, the brother of the deceased, and so on, is told, and when all were present they proceeded to view the body. The report then goes on as follows : Disinfectants were largely used, as_ the atmosphere was becoming bad, and jurymen and medicos felt quite unwell. One juryman found voice to expatiate upon the cash-paying virtues of the deceased, but reluctantly asked the coroner to have the cloth redrawn over the features, as he (the juryman) could not bear the stony rigiditj of that stare from the left eye of the deceased. By order of the doctors a little more disinfectant was sprinkled around, and an external examination of the remains commenced. The hands and feet were loosed by cutting the strings that bound them. The police constable objected to the loosening of the knots, as fche3e very knots would be material evidence in detecting the perpetrator of the crime of foul murder, by which it was supposed Wah Jun met his untimely end. On taking off the trousers a strange and gruesome sitrht presented itself to the assembled officials, for, strange as it may appear, there was no human body there—nothing but a sheepskin, the entrails of some other beast, a few pig bones, a kidney, and a set of goat's teeth. The pig bones served as arms; the entrails served a two-fold purpose, and made the use of disinfectants a necessity. The sheepskin, nicely tanned and turned inside out, formed the head and face, and in this a slit was made for the mouth, the edges of the slit being drawn back to form the lips, between which a faultless set of goat's teeth gleamed with pearly whiteness. The features were complete, nor was the pigtail forgotten. The make-up was complete in every detail, and an English jury mistook it for a Chinaman. It may be remarked here that the clothing was simialr to that worn by Wah Jun on the day of his departure from Alexandra. On discovering their mistake, the coroner, jurymen, and medicos looked at the constables, and the constables in turns stared at everything and everyone. The little boys outside came nearer the windows with innocence and good behavior gleaming over their happy faces, that were, in fact, expressive of all that is good and frolicsome. The jurymen walked home, and so did the medicos, and so did the coroner, and so did the police, but the latter in quite a different mood from the former. The little boys went to play marbles, or some such harmless game, and so ended one of the most remarkable inquests of the nineteenth century.