Death Of Sir Maynard Hedstrom

Mir John Maynard Hedstrom, Kt.,

Chairman of the big Pacific mer chandising organisation of Morris Hedstrom Limited, died in his sleep at his borne in Suva, Fiji, on Saturday night, June 2, at the age of 79. He had been in poor health for some time. Messages from all over the world, and the large gather ing of people of all races at his funeral in Suva, were evidence of his fame, and of the great esteem in which he was held.

There are three large and powerful companies trading in the South Pacific- Burns Philp and Co., Ltd., Morris Hed >trom, Limited, and W. R. Carpenter and Ho., Ltd. Sir James Burns, the founder )f the first of them, passed on in the Twenties. Sir Maynard Hedstrom, bunder of the second, now is gone. The hird, Carpenter & Co., was established nanv years after the other two, and its bunder, Sir Walter Carpenter, is still an

ctive business man, in Canada and in ydney. Future historians will say that lese three very notable men had a pro )und influence on the establishment of le British communities in the islands of le South Pacific. In their case, the flag Jllowed trade.

John Maynard Hedstrom was born in evuka, Fiji, in February, 1872, the son f a Swedish sea-captain, Nicholas S. :edstrom, who was one of the first Euro eans to settle in that archipelago. Young iedstrom was educated at Wesley College, telboume, and he matriculated at telbourne University in 1888. Soon after ards, he was back in Levuka, where he jry early displayed that combination of lasculine goodfellowship and commercial >resight and shrewdness which, in a few scades, made him one of the most ifluential and richest merchants in le South Seas.

He held a couple of jobs with Levuka merchants; but, before he was out of is teens, he was planning his own career, e wanted to trade but he had no capital, e himself told this story: “To obtain

capital. I borrowed £2O from the father of a girl I used to take home from church.

In view of this relationship, the lender per 6 annum"interest ™ ° n ' y 10 PCT per annum interest.

Percy Atherton Morris, then aged 23, arrived in Levuka with his parents in 1891; and, before long, the two youngsters had got together in a small trading enterprise, as Morris, Hedstrom & Co.

Hedstrom had a sub-agency for the Union SS Co., and he was also a recognised Customs agent. They took over the trading business of Miller Hedey; and, as the young Colony developed, the young firm grew, too. Morris remained in charge at Levuka, while Hedstrom established and

took charge of their branch at the new capital, Suva.

As the firm grew, it absorbed other con cerns, by either purchase or amal gamation. Thus, in the course of the years, it took over Brown, Joske and Hedstrom; Arthur Joske Ltd.; G. W.

Miller & Co., Lau; Hugh Ragg & Co., Ba; John Robertson & Co., Sigatoka; Tindall & Ross, Tonga; Smyth and Carruthers, Samoa; and the most important amal gamation occurred when the big trading company of Henry Marks and Co., Ltd., and the Marks directors and personnel joined up with the Hedstrom company, which thenceforth became Morris Hed strom Limited, Mr. Morris retired, to live in Sydney, in 1921. He lived to the age of 82, and died in 1950. After 1921, Sir Maynard carried

on alone.

(Continued page 15)

The late Sir Maynard Hedstrom.

THE big firm’s period of pioneering and 'planning more or less ended with the Marks amalgamation: thenceforth. for Sir Maynard and his co-directors, it was mostly a matter of standing by and watching the growth of the huge concern, and using their judgment and experience to give it direction and shape.

In these later years, Sir Maynard gave more and more personal time to public service and philanthropic activities. For about 30 years he was a member of the Legislative Council; he gave similarly long service to the Executive Council: he was an active President of the Suva Chamber of Commerce for 25 years—in fact, there was not a public body in Fiji which, at some time or other, he did not serve or support.

He was particularly interested native Fijian race; and he showed that in a practical way when the Morris Hedstrom scholarship fund was established for the maintenance of Fiji students at the New Zealand universities Many young Fijians thus have acquired a high education and the fund .continue indefimtely to provide selected Fijian lads tUition - a fine mem ° rial Maynard Hedstrom’s services to his community and the nation were recognised in 1922, when he was knighted; and in 1939, when a high Swedish honour was conferred on him. He was Fiji’s Commlssloner at the great Wembiy Exhibition -

PUMC dinner

combined to pay a warm tribute to his qualities, and his unique re E o ariv°in P lite llC qi r Early in life in 1895 Sir Maynard married Miss Grace Eastgate, one of the

four daughters of Mr. Alexander Eastgate, who went to Fiji to become a cotton planter in 1874. and remained to be a distinguished magistrate. (Others of the Eastgate girls married Sir Maynard’s partner, Mr. Morris, and Mr. H. E.

Snell, who in 1947 succeeded Sir Maynard as Managing Director.) By this marriage, Sir Maynard had three sons and two daughters—one of his sons, Mr.

John Maynard Hedstrom, Junior, is at present General Manager and Secretary of the Company. The first Lady Hed strom died many years ago; and in the ’Thirties Sir Maynard married Miss Joyce Beauchamp, of Sydney. The hospitality of Sir Maynard and Lady Hedstrom was famous in three continents.

It appeared in the last five years, that Sir Maynard’s strength was failing; and this became plain, last year, when within a few months he was shocked by the deaths of Lady Hedstrom, and of Mr.

Morris, his partner and life-long friend.

Nonetheless, right to the end, he remained the same Maynard Hedstrom—on terms of simple friendship with every man— European, Fijian or Indian—he met in Suva’s main street, and keenly interested in every phase of life in the Colony’s mixed community.

He had gone far beyond the allotted age of man; yet hundreds—especially in his beloved Fiji—will mourn the passing- of one whose achievements were great, whose sympathies were wide, and who, despite honours and riches, bore him self always with modesty and kindliness.

Rwr.

On the 10th anniversary of the New Caledonia rally to Free France, the medal the Legion of Honour was bestowed on Medecin Lieutenant-Colonel Massal, of the South Pacific Commission.