TRAGEDY IN FIJI.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19141, 6 October 1925, Page 10

TRAGEDY IN FIJI.

AMERICAN PROFESSOR'S END. FOUND DEAD UNDER A TREE. [from otra own co&hespondent. ] SUVA, Sept. 22. A tragic event occurred about seven miles from Suva last Sunday afternoon. Professor Walter C. Coleman came to Fiji for peace and quietness, so he said. He wanted to study and to write a treatise, and he selected the isolated island of Kandavu, situated about 60 miles from Suva. Here he lived the life of a hermit, and very few people in Fiji knew of his existence. Some weeks ago, Professor Coleman came to Suva, evidently with the inteotion of again visiting his home in the United States, for he booked a passage by the steamer Sonoma, which was to ?ave yesterday. For some days he was the guest of Captain Phillips, headmaster of the 1 Queen Victoria native school at Nasinu. On Sunday afternoon, leaving the professor in normal spirits, Captain Phillips left the hopse to inspect some plantations. He afterwards came, across the body of his guest lying dead under a tree, on a hill facing the sea. By his side was a ,22 sporting rifle. There was a wound in his right temple. The deceased left a quantity of manuscript, but it is apparently not finished. He also had a letter on him, asking that he be buried under the tree, but this is impossible, as it is against the colony's law. Ho was a professor of physiology in an American university, but retired when 44 years old. He was evidantly well-to-do, and had been wandering over different countries for years. He was very much interested in modern hygiene. He leaves a wife and two grown-up sons, all of whom are in the United States. He was about 75 to 77 years old.