APPIN TRAGEDY.

Hokitika Guardian, 11 March 1924, Page 1

APPIN TRAGEDY.

SECOND VICTIM’S DEATH

AUSTRALIAN AND N Z. CARLE ASSOCIATION SYDNEY, March IC. Guy Clift, the second victim of the Appiti tragedy, has succumbed. George Simpson has been charged with the murder of Constable Flynn and of Clift. He was reman iod for a fortnight. SYDNEY, Ararch 10. Clift was a brother of Miss Una Clift, the Well-known owner of racehorses. He leaves a widow and several children. Clift gave Simpson in charge on Saturday for stealing two revolvers from a More. After the shooting, Simpson went to a hotel, where the constable and a civilian rushed and overpowered him. The prisoner is 111 years old, and was employed for several years about the dam as a mechanic. Prior to the shooting he and Flynn were oil friendly terms. Yvhen he was arrested, instead of handcuffing him, Flynn marched him along the street, and even shouted him a drink and a packet of cigarettes,before placing him in a motor car. Nobody even knew that Smipson was under arrest.

Besides revolvers, a motor car, belonging to the. Works Department was found missing from the garage at the dam. The car was found later a mile away. Simpson usually drove this ear which was used as the pay car for the men employed at the dam, sometimes, carrying as much as £SOOO. The police are working on a suggested t! eory that the thefts were the preliminary to the carrying out of a big coup.

CLIFT’S CAREER. (Received this day at 8 a.m.) SYDNEY, March 10. Clift was supervising engineer of the great Cordeaux Dam, and had a lintill rod men under his charge. Alter a successful university career lie won a high place in the Public Works Department and was regarded as one of the finest constructional engineers in the Commonwealth. He was a .man six feet in height and strongly built. His desperate struggle with the prisoner after he had been fatally wounded was a sample of his personal courage for which he was noted.