DEATH OF DE GARIS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19416, 26 August 1926, Page 9

DEATH OF DE GARIS.

A VERDICT OF SUICIDE. HEAVY LIFE INSURANCE. A. and N.Z. MELBOURNE. Aug. 25. An inquest was held to-day concerning the death of C. J. de Garis, who was found dead in the kitchen at his home with the gas turned on. A verdict of suicide was returned. The wife of deceased gave evidence. She said she could suggest no reason why her husband should have taken his life. When he left her on tho morning of his death he was in a cheerful mood. He asked her to prepare an early luncheon and he showed no signs of depression. Once previously de Garis had hinted that he would commit suicide. It is stated that deceased's lift* was insured for a total of „ £30,000. • Most of this was assigned. It is also learned that a well-known solicitor some months ago insured' de Garis for.£sooo as cover for a large sum which was owing to the solicitor

The' insurance company took the risk of suicide within one year. It will therefore have to pay the £SOOO and a bonus of £IOO.

The Sydney correspondent of the Herai-d writes:—When the body of Clement John De, Garis was found in a gas-filled room at a house in Morhingtotf, near Melbourne, death had written "Closed to the account of one of the most erratic and , picturesque. figures that ever were associated with Australian business. Foi the last 18 years De Garis' name has been constantly I .the public in relation to some business proposition. Few of business enterprises were permanently successful, and many were failures, but they were failures because of some flaw in the character of their\promoter. ; His suicide, by turning on the. taps of a gas; r.ven after- every aperture in the room had been sealed, came as the result of a last blow to his hopes of making his greatest failure, tho Kendenup soldiers' settlement in Western Australia, a success. De Garis professed to believe that he had struck petroleum at Kendenup, and though his statements were, refuted by Government experts, he continued to try to interest his friends in this oil proposition. The blow to his hopes of making this his "bonanza"' came .in: the refusal of an American syndicate to back., him up.. The son of. a Methodist minister" who left the pulpit to engagfe in farming the IVfildura irrigation settlement, Do Garis was first connected with a real estate firm founded by his father and then with a fruit-packing company. His first rise, to fame came in 1908, when he was appointed publicity director of the Australian Dried; Fruits. ., His work; in that position brought results. 'He spent tremendous sums in advertising, and his administration of publicity . was not always unanimously approved..,• De Garis converted an estate in South Australia into a model' irrigation settlement, but a similar attempt at Kendenup. failed. The concentration he put into trying, to make that ill-fated venture a success led him to neglect his dozen and one other enterprises, which ranged from book-publishing to owning a newspaper. Yet at the height of. all his; activities. De Garis found time to write and produce, a musical comedy. After he was brought .back to Melbourne "from New Zealand on a charge, of passing a Valueless cheque, the proceedings were withdrawn, •;and many of his creditors again joined him in a real estate, venture*:' That was a success and most of them got their losses back. But the avalanche of debt was too much for him in the end,, and like Sisyphus pushing his boulder up the hill, he found he could never reach the summit that meant clearance from ; debt. pe Garis' career and character must, provide interesting material for the psychologist. His three main' features were immense energy, greater initiative, and still greater optimism.. If -the. man : had been, a, little less optimistic, he might have_h ee n greater. ~lt was a remarkable tribute to his powers of-persuasion and convincing oratorv that so many ,people remained loval to him financially after they . had burned their fingers in previous financial pies of his recipe "and miking.