Another Samoan “Old-Timer"'

Passes on Mr. Thomas Andrew

ONE of the best-known of Samoa’s “old timers”, Mr. Thomas Andrew, died in Apia on August 7, aged 84, after a long illness. He had had a picturesque and interesting life.

Mr Andrew was bom in Auckland, and started business life as a photographer.

He began his Pacific wanderings in 1886, when he was 31, and he went with his camera to places far off the usual tracks, and his collections of negatives were unique. He established a studio in Auck land, but was burned out in 1891. and so he transferred to Samoa, where he prac tised as a photographer until his eye-

sight failed. He became interested in cocoa planting, and he introduced Para rubber. Subsequently, he settled down as a general merchant. He was a friend of Robert Louis Stevenson, during the latter’s short residence in Samoa.

When it was decided to plant bread fruit on the plantations in the Solomon Islands, it was Mr. Andrew who supplied the plants, which were all collected in Samoa. In 1912, he was engaged by an Australian syndicate to report on plan tation land and possibilities in the New Hebrides, a commission which he exe cuted with tack and ability. The services which Mr. Andrew rendered to the Samoans during the epidemic of 1918 will be long remembered: he worked strenu ously for long hours with no thought for himself, and saved many lives.

Mr. T. Andrew.

—Photo; Tattersall’s Studio.