Apia, Samoa

Fire Brigade Is Wanted In

Letter to the Editor IT may be recalled that in 1946 a dis astrous fire wiped out part of the business premises here of Messrs. O.

F. Nelson and Co., and that there then was a public outcry against the lack of fire-fighting equipment. Thanks to our Administrator, we got an up-to-date fire engine and equipment.

But this equipment, in the hands of untrained and unskilled men, is of no use at all. The well-stocked trading store of John Fong and Co., at Matafele, in the centre of Apia, has just been completely destroyed. It was only by chance that there was not blowing a wind which would have wiped out part of the business sec tion of Apia. The same happy chance saved the town in 1946.

It is imperative that we have a team of trained fire-fighters available. Surely it is possible to arrange for the services, for a while, for training purposes, of an officer from the Suva Fire Brigade, which is one of the best. I am sure we could find a dozen good men here to serve as a voluntary fire brigade, and I am sure the whole business community would help.

“Samoa mo Samoa” (Samoa for the Samoans) does not mean much if we can not organise a fire brigade for our own

protection.

I am, etc.,

Apia.

Leaga Tonu Samoa.

Simon Qaius, a New Britain native teacher at the Methodist Mission College in New Britain, arrived in Melbourne in July. He will assist in translating the Bible into Blanche Bay dialect.

Mr. J. Brown, of the British Phosphate Commission, Nauru, arrived in Brisbane recently to marry Miss D.

Dunne. After two months’ holiday, the couple will make their home on Nauru.