Public Spirited Apia Couple
pp. 23-24 · Read in the full issue
Celebrate Golden Wedding
Prom Our Own Correspondent APIA, October 14.
ON October 10, Mr. and Mrs. A. G.
Smyth, prominent residents of Apia for long years, and well-known in other Pacific territories, celebrated their Golden Wedding, All Apia took part in commemorating this happy event and in expressing good wishes to two of the most outstanding and public-spirited citizens of the Territory.
Mr. Smyth was born in Australia and started his commercial career with Burns Philp Limited at Thursday Island. It was at the Quetta Memorial Church on Thurs day Island that he was married to Miss Emily Richmond Brown, on October 8, 1900.
From Thursday Island he was transferred, as chief clerk, to Burns Philp’s Bowen Branch and later to the Charter’s Towers Branch. After 16 years’ service with the firm he resigned and for two years conducted a business of his own at Bowen. In 1910 he went to Port Moresby to manage the business of C. R.
Baldwin; then to Fiji to join Morris, Hedstrom Ltd., as Merchandise Manager of their Levuka Branch. Twelve months later he was made a director of this company. In 1916 he came to Apia to ten der, on behalf of his firm, for DH & PG and Krause & Preuss stocks (German firms in liquidation). In 1918 he re signed from Morris, Hed
strom, Ltd., to accept a position with the late H. J. Moors of Apia.
Whilst in Levuka, Mr. and Mrs. Smyth had taken an active part in municipal and public affairs. Mr. Smyth was in charge of the Levuka Defence Force at the time Count von Luckner was captured. After settling down in Apia, the couple took just as active a part in public affairs of Samoa. When the disastrous influenza epidemic broke out in 1918 the first case occurred in a Samoan fale close to where the Smyth family lived at Vaiala. Mrs.
Smyth nursed and fed at her own ex pense the village people at Vaiala and Moata’a right through the epidemic.
In Levuka Mrs. Smyth collected during two years of the First World War over £2,400 for the Levuka War Chest, apart from her work for the Fiji Red Cross and collections for a Tobacco Fund. In Samoa, during the Second World War she collected nearly £5,000 to buy a Spitfire plane for England.
IN 1918 Mr. Smyth left Apia to open an office in Auckland for Messrs. O. F.
Nelson & Co., Ltd., of Apia. In 1920 he resigned and purchased the Apia busi ness of Neils Johannsen. He sold out in 1926 and went to Suva to liquidate the business of A. M. Brodziak, Ltd. He re turned to Apia in 1930 and after managing the business of O. F. Nelson & Co. Ltd., during the late O. P. Nelson’s absence, pur chased the business of Mrs. N. Davidson which under the name of A. G. Smyth & Co., Ltd., he still conducts.
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Mr. and Mrs. A. G. Smythe.
Mr. Smyth has taken an active interest in all sport in Apia, promoting racing, bowling, boxing, rifle shooting and other activities. He has participated actively in local politics and was instrumental in persuading the New Zealand Government to open up the Aleisa settlement for local bom European settlers, where many families are now growing bananas, cocoa and taro. He was a member of the Legislative Council of Western Samoa for nine years.
In appreciation of his interest in and assistance to the Marist Brothers’ School at Apia, the school gave a party to the couple on October 10 with appropriate
songs, recitations and speeches in honour of the occasion.
At a cocktail party in the evening of October 10 a large number of residents and many old identities and friends gathered to pay sincere tribute to Mr. and Mrs. Smyth. Mr. E. F. Paul, MLA, in proposing their health, spoke of their pub lic spirit and their many good deeds.
Instead of personal gifts for the occa sion, Mr. and Mrs. Smyth had expressed the wish that a benevolent fund should be created in their name for charitable purposes and their friends have liberally contributed to the Mr. and Mrs. Smyth Jubilee Fund.