Tragic Death.

W. A. Wilson Shot at Penrhyn Island.

from Our Own Correspondent.

Papeete, July 20.

NEWS has just reached Tahiti from Penrhyn Island of the accidental death of Mr. Walter Alexander Wil son, who was Government Resident Agent there since 1914.

It appears that the fatality occurred in the early morning of June 26, while the “Tiare Taporo” was there from Rarotonga.

Mr. Wilson, with his customary hospi tality, had planned a little feast for his visitors, and left home before dawn to hunt for wild pig or chicken. As the day wore on, and he did not return, native search parties went out and eventually discovered the unfortunate man, stone dead, on the beach.

When found, one of Mr. Wilson’s hands was still clutching the upper end of his rifle barrel, where a white hand kerchief had been tied, presumably to aid him in the sighting of his weapon during the dark, and it is, therefore, sur mised that he was in the act of remov ing the handkerchief when, through careless handling, the rifle was accident ally discharged. The bullet entered be neath the eye and passed completely through the skull, making a ghastly wound; death must have been instan taneous.

An inquest was held by Judge Ayson (Administrator of the Cook Islands) who was on the island at the time, and a verdict of accidental death was brought in.

Mr. Wilson, who was a real old-timer in the Cook Islands, was born in Edin burgh, Scotland, in 1870 or 1871, and was, therefore, about 62 years of age at the time of his death. He took to the sea when quite a lad, and also worked for a spell ashore in one of the lumber yards near Portland, Oregon, until in 1889 he signed on as able seaman aboard the barque "Derby Parks,” bound for Australia with a cargo of railroad sleepers.

One dark, stormy night during this voyage, the vessel ran ashore on the north-east side of Penrhyn Island, close to the village of Tautua. In getting ashore, the Captain lost his wife, but the rest of the crew landed safely, and remained there for several weeks, until the Tahiti schooner “Tuamotu” came along and took them away—all except Wilson, who elected to remain there in the employment of Mr. Philip Woonton, then a trader on the island.

For the next quarter of a century, Wilson lived very much of a native life, spells ashore as a trader alternating with pearl-diving trips to Scilly Island, Manihiki, and other northern lagoons.

Once, at least, he took a voyage as mate, aboard the “Tamarii Tahiti” with Cap tain Pau, but he always returned to the atoll he had grown to love.

Wilson was one of those rough, simple souls whose emotions, like those of many another man whose life has been passed amid very primitive surroundings, were very near the surface. The writer recalls with pleasure one memorable visit that Mr. Wilson paid to Tahiti, in 1918, or thereabouts, and the wonderful thrill he got from his first sight of an electric light and a motor car, and the way his feelings burst forth at some sensational scene in the local cinema show. He was

just the sort of man to appeal to the rough Penrhyn islanders (of whom there are now less than 400) and, indeed, he was a real father to them.

Wilson married a Tahiti girl some years ago. She pre-deceased him, but he leaves behind two young children, to whom he was devotedly attached. He also leaves a record of many years of faithful service in the Cook Island Gov ernment —a record of which any man might be proud.