A MYSTERY picture from the Victorian era may have provided the answer to some peculiar goings on at a Wellington hotel.

After Peter and Murium Green took over the Blue Mantle Hotel in 1993, the couple were plagued by ghostly visitors and strange goings on, which were observed by staff and guests alike.

Occurances included keys going missing and ghostly apparitions.

Mr Green recounted an incident when he saw a man reading a newspaper in the television lounge of the hotel.

His presence was never acknowledged and checks revealed he was not a guest, or with anyone else staying at the venue.

“A short while later he had vanished,” Mr Green added. “Neither myself or my wife had seen or heard anyone leave.

“The security system on the door hadn’t been activated either.”

Then, in January 1996, Mr Green discovered a photograph of a man, possibly from the Victorian era, sporting a hunting jacket and holding fishing rods which he believed were the same gentleman.

The picture could not have been put there after the tank’s installation, Mr Green said, adding to the mystery.

However, his efforts to identify the man proved unsuccessful.

“Nobody knows who this gentleman was,” Mr Green said.

The mystery, as far as we know, remains unsolved...