“STRANGE BUT...!”

Thames Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 20080, 7 August 1937, Page 3

“STRANGE 8UT...!”

A "HAUNTED" BILLY. BELIEF IN THE OCCULT. "SPIRITS OF" THE KANAKAS." Stranjge tales of a haunted billy and eerie noises at night were told by the live men who have returned from Sunday Island after having attempted to settle it. They confess that they are now almost believers in the occult, Jgft they also admit that, through lack of food and other troubles, their nerves are not now as strong as they wore a few months ago. Nevertheless, they steadfastly declare that their talc of the behaviour of a tin billy is true. The story was told to a reporter by Mr. <T. Grant, and was later confirmed by tho others.

The billy, according to Mr. Grant, was an ordinary one which he had taken to the island in April, and soon after then he discovered its peculiar behaviour. Every time it reached boiling point it capsized. First it was balanced on stones, and later it was propped up with more stones, green sticks, or other stakes, but they could do nothing to stop it tipping over. From a joke it became a serious mental strain, and as Hie other billies were tried and found to behave in the ordinary way the strain became greater. Each of tho men now firmly believes that some unseen power was responsible for the capsizing of the billy. Eerie noises at night also worried members of the party, and in particular Mr. Grant, avlio tells strange tales of hearing human voices at night. He holds firmly to a belief that in years past a shipload of diseases kanakas was left at the island to die, and ho claims that the spirits of some of these still haunt a part of the island to which none Of the party wns willing to go.