Our Invercargill correspondent telegraphs; "Considerable apprehension is felt in Mataura regarding the safety of Mr John Wilson (late of Green Island), licensee of the Bridge Hotel, Mataura. It appears that on Saturday evening Mr Wilson, after seeing his children off to bed about 7 o'clock, walked out of the house, and has not been seen since. It is feared that he may have walked over the river embankment. Search parties have dragged the river during the past three days, but no traces of the missing man have been found." -Otago Daily Times, 10/8/1898.
MR WILSON'S BODY FOUND.
The body of Mr John Wilson, licensee of the Bridge Hotel, Mataura, who disappeared so mysteriously on the evening of Saturday, 6th August, was discovered by Mr Alexander Doull, of the Crescent farm, Wyndham, on Sunday afternoon. Mr Doull was riding round his father's property at the time, and noticed the body, which was caught in some willows at a peninsula formed by the Mataura and Wyndham rivers. Constable Bogue was at once apprised of the discovery, and proceeded to the scene with a conveyance, removing the body to the Farmers' Club Hotel, where the licensee, Mr John Milne, recognised the remains as those of the missing man Wilson. With the exception of there being no coat nor hat, the body was fully clothed. In the pockets were found a Waterbury watch (stopped at 7 o'clock, corresponding with the probable time of deceased's falling into .the river), a box of matches, and an empty leather purse.
It will be remembered that on the night of his disappearance, and in fact for some time previously, Mr Wilson was in a very weak state of health, having sustained a very malignant attack of influenza. On the evening of the 6th August, Constable Keaney conversed with him on matters relating to the transfer of the license, Wilson having just previously taken over possession of the hotel from Mrs Humphries. At that time Wilson was in a very weak state, and it was with difficulty that lie walked from his bedroom into the room adjoining, where the conversation took place. The banks of the river, which at that spot were precipitous and over 20ft. in height, were within a couple of yards of the bedroom door, and it is presumed that the unfortunate man while leaving his bedroom to go to an outhouse fell over the bank into the river, the body being immediately carried down stream by the strong current running there. In the face of the fact that Wilson was in a very weak state — scarcely able to walk, in point of fact — this theory is not only feasible, but the only one tenable. That the dragging operations conducted in the vicinity of Mataura during the first few days following Wilson's disappearance were abortive, may be accounted for by the supposition that the body was immediately carried down stream. By the time dragging operations were extended to Wyndham the body may have lodged among the roots and snags at the peninsula on Mr Doull's property, and came to the surface after the first fresh of any magnitude in the river. This theory is supported by the fact of the features of the late Mr Wilson's face being easily recognisable and not at all mutilated.
From the first the opinion was generally held that the unfortunate man had fallen into the river, and much sympathy has been expressed towards Mrs Wilson and her young family. The painful suspense of the past seven weeks has been most trying to the widow, and she now has the melancholy satisfaction of knowing the fate which so suddenly overtook her husband. -Mataura Ensign, 27/9/1898.
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