# Notable South Australians/Arthur John Baker, J.P.

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​ ​he entered into business on his own account as cattle and stock agent at Hindmarsh-square. In June, 1856, Mr. Baker received the appointment of manager of the horse department at the Burra Burra mines, but in consequence of an inability to dispose of his Adelaide business he was compelled to resign the appointment, and continued as before. It was in the October of this year that Mr. Baker and his wife' suffered a great bereavement by the accidental drowning of their only son Arthur, an intelligent youth, then nearly sixteen years of age, in endeavouring to ride across the River Torrens at the Frome Bridge ford, at the time of a freshet. Mr. Baker next turned his attention to the running of omnibuses on the Bay road, and continued this till 1858, in September of which year he joined Major Warburton's exploring party, and was out three months with them. He afterwards took Mr. Peter Ferguson over the same ground, and assisted in driving in cattle to stock the country taken up. In 1859 he made another trip to the N.W. of Stuart's Creek, and on his return took up some fine country for squatting purposes. Interesting and remarkable as Mr. Baker's adventures undoubtedly were up to this point, it is his long connection with the South Australian Fire Brigades that has rendered his name familiar throughout the land. In December, 1859, he accepted the offer made by the Fire Insurance Companies through Mr. H. Scott, of organising: and working a tire brigade in Adelaide, and was appointed Superintendent of Fire Brigades January 1, 1860, and drew up rules and regulations for the working of same. He also drafted a short Fire Brigade Bill, which was passed through l)oth Houses of Parliament and was assented to by Hi& Excellency, Sir Dominick Daly, on 21st October, 1862. In. December, 1862, he was elected councillor for Gawler Ward in the Adelaide Corporation, and served till 1864. On 15tlL October, 1878, Mr. Baker, whose health had suffered from, injuries received during twenty years' active service at fires, ​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.