FOUND DROWNED

Auckland Star, Volume XXVIII, Issue 226, 29 September 1897, Page 8

FOUND DROWNED

Till, dead body of a man was found in the harbour this afternoon, by a hand in one of' the coal hulks, named Thomas Coleman, who ' noticed it drifting past with the ebb - tide. Coleman lowered a boat, and securing the body, towed it ashore at Devonport. Constable Bowles, of Devonport, brought the body across to Auckland, aud with the assistance of Constable Oliphant took it to tlie morgue, to await : the coroner's inquest. The deceased' man was above the average height and fully

dressed in rough tweed clothes and a pair of Lilucher boots. The body had evidently been in the water some considerable tune, as it is in an advanced state of decomposition. At present the man's identity is unknown, but from his appearance he is thought to have been a sailor.

Mr S. Percy Smith, Surveyor-General, returned by the s.s. Upolu last evening* from a holiday trip to Tahiti and Rarotonga, in the Eastern'Pacific,.in the course of which he acquired much valuable, information concerning the "whence" of the Maori,* which he proposes publishing in the "Polynesian Journal," of which ho and Mr Tregear are the joint editors. Mr Smith during his Island trip stayed about a mouth at Karotonga and a month at Tahiti, and spent a most enjoyable holiday, one of the pleasantest portions of which was passed at the island of Morea, near Tahiti. ' As the result of his visit and investigations, Mr Smith considers it proved beyond doubt that the Maoris of New Zealand originally came from the islands of Kaiatea, Borabora and Tahaa, in the Society Group.