KILLED BY ELEPHANT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19508, 11 December 1926, Page 14

KILLED BY ELEPHANT.

BIG-GAME HUNTER'S DEATH. TRAGEDY IN FRENCH CONGO. A BROTHER IN AUCKLAND* A pathetic circumstance of the death of Mr. John James Simpson, who was killed by an elephant last week while hunting big game in French Congo, Africa, i 3 that the deceased—who was a brother of Mr. A. Simpson, of the Customs Department sn Auckland—was on the eve of retiring permanently from tho professional pursuit of hunting, which he had followed for 24 years. How ho met his end was not disclosed in the brief cable message received by Mr. Simpson from a .brother in Tyrone, Northern Ireland, but as it was a common experience for fiini to kill game while they "were changing him it is thought he must have been attacked by a large herd of elephants.

While Mi*. Simpson had never been in New Zealand, the tragedy is of interest in view both of the attraction such .a life of adventure always holds, and of 'the fact that besides Mr. A. Simpson, another brother, Mr. T. M. Simpson, now managing the ancestral farm in Tyrone, was well-known in New Zealand.' Ho first served as a member of the Permanent Artillery "in Wellington, and later with the Expeditionary Forces. Many pictures eloquent of tho thrilling adventures that were part of the dead hunter's daily round appeared from time to time in the Auckland Weekxy News. Born in Tyrone 42 years ago, Mr. Simpson went to South Africa at the age of 17, and after two years' service in the Police Force at Kimberley worked in the j-reasury goldmine at Johannesburg for ten years. Since that timo he was engaged continuously in hunting in Uganda and the Belgian and French Congo. Elephants were his main quarry, and tho dangers of the pursuit may be dimly realised when it is mentioned that \ they had generally to be stalked in " elephant grass " fourteen feet high. Last year Mr. Simpson had charge of a party of hunters which included a Betlgian prince. The fatality has dissipated plans for a family reunion next year, to which Mr. Simpson's father, a magistrate in the county, who has reached the ripe ago of 75," had been keenly looking forward.