OILY RECTORY.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 15978, 21 November 1919, Page 8

OILY RECTORY.

ILLUSIONIST’S STOEY OF A GIEL’S HOAX. Mr Oswald Williams, the illusionist, claims to have solved the ‘mystery of the Swanton Novera, 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 lip. Mr Williams says he 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 liquid. This was found by Mr Guy to be salted water. In the afternoon Mr and Mrs Williams, Mr and Mrs Guy, and two other persons then went into one of the front rooms. Mis Williams went quietly to a room above the kitchen, and could, through an aperture in the floor, see the girl below take up a glass and throw some of the salted water to the ceiling. Finally the girl, it is stated, after first denying her hoax, .made a clean breast of the matter in the presence of the whole pai’ty 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 the fact that the girl was caught in the act this does not dispose of the mystery. She may have ten helping on the annoyance, hut I cannot believe it is the true solution.” The servant girl, Mabel Louise Phillips, aged 141, has since denied that she had made a confession. The rector, Mr Gny, and his wife, say they are satisfied “the true solution of the mystery has been found.”