OILY RECTORY.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 16591, 13 November 1919, Page 3

OILY RECTORY.

ILLUSIONIST’S STORY OF A , GIRL’S HOAX. Mr. Oswald Williams, the illusionist, claime to have solved the “mystery of the Swantbn Novers, Norfolk, oily rectory. He arranged with the rector, Mr. Guy, to lay a trap for the servant girl," which resulted in her confessing, it is stated to throwing liquid up to the ceiling. The girl was sent away for three days and the house shut up. Mr. AVilliams says ho cut off the water supply and removed all liquid, except that he placed about the rooms haphazard several pails containing strongly salted water. On the return of the girl she reported two more falls of quid. This was found by Mr. Guy to be salted water. In tho afternoon Mr. and Mrs. Williams, Mr. and Mrs. Guy, and two other persons then went into one of the front rooms. Mrs. AVilliams went quietly to a room above the kitchen, and could, through an aperture in the floor, see tho girl below take up a glass and throw some of the salted water to the ceiling. Finally tho girl, it is stated, after first denying her hoax, made a clean breast of the matter in the presence of tho whole party and burst into tears. Mr. Maskelyne, who also investigated the matter, says this “solution is impossible and impracticable. The whole house is saturated with oil. The girl would need to have had access to barrels of it to make the mess I saw when I was there. Despite tho fact that the girl Was caught in the act this does not dispose of the mystery. She may'have been helping on the annoyance, but I cannot believe it is the true solution.”. The servant girl, Mabel Louise Phillips, aged 14i, has since denied that she had made a confession. The rector, Mr. Guy and his wife, say they are satisfied “the true solution of the mystery, hag been found,”'