received a year's leave of absence, and left for England, returning in June the next year, when he resumed duty, and in September 1879 perfected a model for a fire escape on the Lazy-Tongs' principle, on a scale of one inch to the foot, and presented it to the Adelaide Chamber of Manufactures. From that period till the new Fire Brigade Act 273 of 1882 was passed, he was constantly employed, having fifty calls per annum to fires within the city, and attended to and managed nine fire brigades in country towns. The new Act, 273 of 1882, brought Mr. Baker's twenty-three years' connection with the fire brigades of the colony to an abrupt conclusion, and he retired and did not apply to be re-appointed under the new Fire Brigades' Board. Mr. Baker's long public services were by this means summarily dispensed with, and his long services to the whole community in which, he has been instrumental in saving life and property have never been fairly or adequately compensated. The Register of 12th February, 1882, remarks, "It will be generally admitted that Mr. Baker, in spite of often very insufficient appliances, always discharged the duties devolving on him as Superintendent of Fire Brigades with promptness and intelligence. Besides this, he has spent the best years of his life in this service." In 1883 Mr. Baker was gazetted a Justice of the Peace, and in the same year was appointed a member of the "Royal Lunacy Commission," and was also a member of the Fire Brigades' Board from January 1884 to January 1885, when he resigned in favor of Mr. Hack.
Capt. Geo. McKay,
A NATIVE of Scotland; born 1801; arrived in S.A. 1838; died at Port Adelaide, May 19, 1883. Well-known as instrumental in developing the coasting trade of the colony.
