Death In Solomon Islands

Mr. G. E. Clift

jVfR. Geoffrey E. Clift, of Guadalcanal, IV i British Solomon Islands, died on June 8. Pneumonia was given as the cause of death.

Mr. Clift was one of the best-known and most lovable men in the Solomon Islands, and a wide circle of his friends in the Pacific and elsewhere will learn of his death with the deepest regret.

Mr. Clift spent some years in Fiji, where he was employed by the Colonial Sugar Refining Company as a surveyor.

Some time before the war, he went to the Solomon Islands and entered the planting industry, taking over the Pairo Estate, on Meringe Lagoon. He was one of the Solomon Island planters who en listed with the British forces when war broke out in 1914, and he served with distinction. After his military service, he returned to his plantation in the Solo mons and took an active part in public affairs there. He became a member of the Advisory Council and he was one of the most active members of the Solomon Is lands Planters Association. Through his activity and energy, in travelling over the group and organising the planters, he was successful in obtaining concessions from the Administration in connection with native land leases.

The late Mr. Clift, although he suffered much in later years from ill health, was always cheerful and witty. On one occa sion, when he came to Sydney, he was intercepted on the boat by a reporter, who asked him if there was anyone of im portance on board.

“No one of any importance lives in the Solomons,” replied Mr. Clift; and this remark, to the amusement of 8.5.1. people, was solemnly reported in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Mr. Clift was about 60 years of age.