Mr. H. C. Reed
p. 28 · Read in the full issue
Sudden Death In Samoa
From Our Own Correspondent APIA, July 30.
ONE of the best-known old residents of Western Samoa, Mr. Hubert Charles Reed, of Apia, died on July 20 after a short illness at the Apia Hos pital at the age of 65 years.
Mr. Reed, an Englishman, had had an adventurous career before he settled in Samoa. In his youth he was an aerial acrobat (he claimed to have been the first man to cross Fleet Street, London, on a tight-rope) a ventriloquist and a magician. He occasionally delighted audiences in Samoa, and particularly children, with his tricks. He served under
Lord Kitchener, and in the first World War he joined the Navy and was in the battle of Jutland. In Samoa, he traded for some of the big companies and was employed by the New Zealand Repat riation Estates. He had a sound know ledge of tropical agriculture, and en gaged in research work with vegetables and various tropical plants. Recently he assisted the High Commissioner (Col. F.
W, Voelcker) in establishing a planta tion at Vailima (Robert Louis Steven son’s historic home). Through his ex periments—some of which he described in contributions to the “PlM”—he was known to many people overseas and kept up an extensive correspondence. He was also interested in, and had done much exploring in the Caroline Islands (with their ruins of ancient monuments) and in anthropology and ethnology.
Among his talents was a strong artistic strain, and he was known to many American servicemen for his paintings of Samoan landscapes and scenery on tapa cloth.
At the Wembley Exhibition (1924) Mr.
Reed accompanied the Samoan exhibits to England and, with his wife, had the honour of explaining the Samoan exhibi tion to the King and Queen.
At the funeral which was attended by a representative gathering of Apia citi zens, the Rev. C. W, Whonsbon-Aston officiated, Mr. Reed leaves a widow, two sons and a daughter (Mrs. C. L. Edwards).
A few hours after leaving for her home ports from Suva, where she had been undergoing annual overhaul, the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony vessel “Kia Kia” went up on the reef near Nukulau Island. She was refloated the next day —July 16.