Corporate entry: Phillips Land Commission
Details
The Lands Commission that operated between 1919 and 1924 is known as the Phillips Land Commission. It only investigated fifty-five claims out of some three hundred European titles. There were two Commissioners: Captain G. G. Alexander, who left when he was appointed Junior Puisine Judge in Tanganyika, Africa, and Judge Sir J. Beaumont Phillips. Phillips made it his practice to hold the hearing on the land in question, which revealed numerous discrepancies. He halved one of Levers Pacific Plantations claims in the Western Solomons from 263,340 to 137,820 acres. Rather than quelling indigenous discontent, the Lands Commission drew attention to the inequity of land alienation.