Obituaries Australia

Our Durban correspondent writes Mr. Michael Charles Jacobs, a native of Adelaide and a young man of much promise as a business man, citizen and sportsman, died at Durban, Natal, on May 5, at the age of 26. Death was due to heart failure, following on an attack of enteric fever. The deceased was the eldest son of Mr. Samuel Joshua Jacobs, a well-known citizen of Adelaide, and was educated at Geelong College, Victoria. The late Mr. Jacobs was the Durban manager of the large firm of Charles Jacobs & Sons, sugar merchants of Melbourne and Adelaide, and it was a striking testimony to his ability and to the complete confidence reposed in him that at so young an age he was entrusted with so responsible and important a position. The firm carries on business in most of the larger towns of South Africa, and the deceased, who went to that country when a youth of 18, had been engaged in the firm's business in Mauritius at Port Elizabeth, and East London before entering upon the Durban managership. Conduct is the mouthpiece of character, and so favorable was the impression formed of the young South Australian that those who knew him well predicted that had he lived he would in a few years' time have ranked as one of the leading citizens of Durban. Mr. Jacobs was an excellent cricketer, and he just missed being chosen for the Natal eleven which had the honor of being the only team in South Africa to beat the M.C.C. in their recent tour. He was noted, too, as one of the best of cricket organisers, and in this respect his death is a great loss to Natal cricket. He was a young man of many attributes and aptitudes, one of those cheerful yesterdays and confident tomorrows, and he was held in affectionate esteem by all who knew him.