FINDING OF THE BODY OF HARRY AUSTIN DOWNES.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 165, 24 June 1884, Page 2

FINDING OF THE BODY OF HARRY AUSTIN DOWNES.

Deep anxiety to ascertain the fate of Mr. Downes, who for several days had been missing, led to a party of noble volunteers starting out on Sunday early to seek for and succor him if alive, or to recover the body if dead. The party consisted of Mr. J. Tutchen, Mr. Hall, saddler; Mr. Marchie, storekeeper; Mr. Baldie, M. Woodbine Johnson, Mr. Johnson’s shepherd, Mr. Watt, storekeeper, Te Arai; Mr. William Bailey, hotel-keeper, Murawai, with constable Tronson. These good and willing volunteers with, it may be few others, whose names may have been omitted by our reporter, started on their mission to cross and encounter a very wild piece of country in search of a man who if not dead must of necessity be in extreme suffering. Mr. Tutchen went in advance of the party, to obtain all the information from the Natives as to the precise spot the horse was found which Downes had ridden. This done Mr. Tutchen traced the river as far back as he was able from where Downes had crossed. It was a wild bit of country along the river bank and to a considerable distance inland. Scrub and flax and tangled creeper made exploration tedious, painful and exhausting. Not seeing anything of the missing man, Mr. Tutchen turned back and joined the main body of the party, to whom he told the parts of the river he had not y searched. These parts owing to the dense scrub and abrupt rises and declivities had to be travelled on foot, as it was impossible, or if not impossible, very dangerous, to make a mounted search. After a prolonged and tiring procession of the party in Indian file, Tronson, on the east side of the river, met with the dead body of poor Downes. It was an awful sight. The body was in a standing position, with one leg in the water, the other, resting on a log, the back inclined against a stunted tree growing at the edge of the river. The strange position of the body is accounted for in this wise: Downes had entered the stream with the intention of crossing it by a deep descent, when he must have been instantly unhorsed by the force of the rushing waters. The body was found about a mile below where the rider had attempted to cross. It had been caught in a projecting ? snag, and there held fast. Then when the flood subsided the body was found as we have mentioned. A stretcher was extemporised as quickly as the work could be done, and the body in this way conveyed by the party in the direction of Mr. Johnson’s homestead. But this could only be effected by cutting a track through the tangled bush. The party became faint, weak, and completely done up. Then > they drove four stakes into the ground, and with flax and branches of trees placed the body inside, from where it will be removed to day. The force of the current Downes had been subjected to, may be conceived when it was seen that the left side of the skull had been crushed inwards, by coining in contact with the river boulders. An inquest will probably be held this afternoon, or early to-morrow, as no delay can take place before the remains of the unfortunate deceased are conveyed to the cemetery. It was so far well for the widow and her orphaned children, that only a day or two before starting on the last journey poor Downes was over to make, that he had renewed his life policy in the Mutual Providence Office, of which Mr. F. J. Piesse is the Gisborne agent.