GIRL STOWAWAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 252, 23 October 1924, Page 5

GIRL STOWAWAY.

DRESSES AS BOY.

A PICTURESQUE STORY,

LONDON, October 22,

A New Zealand girl, Miss Bessie Chalmers, has arrived in Edinburgh, having travelled from the Dominion as a stowaway, dressed as a boy, aboard the Port Hunter. In relating her story she said she was doing well in New Zealand and earning good wages, when she heard of her mother's death in, Scotland. She felt she must return to help her invalid father and his motherless family. The girl could not save her pasaago money, as she had been sending home every spare penny. She tried to secure a position as a stewardess on the Port Hunter, but failed to do so.

Thereupon she bought a pair of trousers, a jersey, and a cap, and stowed away in an empty cabin. She went without food for three days. Then there was a storm and she was terribly ill. Miss Chalmers managed to change (back into girl's clothes arid crawl out of her hiding place. She then gave herself up to the captain, who, at first, was very angry with her. Finally, however, he allowed her to work her passage by assisting the stewards.'

Tragically enough, the girl'g father, a veteran soldier, who had been crippled and an invalid for 18 years," died before her arrival in Edinburgh.—A. and N.Z.