DISCOVERY OF THE BODY OF HENRY SCOTT.

West Coast Times, Issue 1748, 9 May 1871, Page 3

DISCOVERY OF THE BODY OF HENRY SCOTT.

Early on Monday last news was brought in to Suva that .the body of Henry Scott, the presumed murderer of Mr G. W. Baillie, had been found, and immediately a number of the white residents proceeded to the spot indicated, and from what was then seen it would ba inferred that Scott, subsequent to the murder, wandered about the vicinity of the catastrophe for pome time, and then, probably impelled by his own indisposition, resolved upon an act of self-destruction. It would appear that he undressed himself, secured his clothes in the fork of a tree on the banks of the Numbucculo Creek, some mile or so from the scene of the murder, and, leaving his gun with his clothes, went into the water with his revolver and shot himself. The revolver, with only one barrel dischargee l , was found in the water close to the clothes, but it seems that the freshes in the river after the recent heavy rain carried the body of the unfortunate unhappy man down a considerable distance to where it was found. When found, the body was in an advanced state

of decomfoition, so that only two or three of the party who started on the receipt of information could approach near to it. The face was almost entirely eaten away, and, although the body was thus and otherwise disfigured, there was sufficient evidence to enable it to be identified and cause of death ascertained. None of the missing money was found with the clothes, but some of it — we believe £6 or thereabouts — was subsequently found with some of the natives, and recovered, and it is conjectured that the remainder may be also recovered from the same source. The feeling of some who have visited the place is to let the body remain where it was found ; whilst others are desirous that an inquiry or inquest should be held, so that a record of the circumstance might be made ; but it is not yet known which course may be resolved upon.