A CRUEL DECEPTION.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 124, 28 May 1928, Page 9

A CRUEL DECEPTION.

WELLINGTON MEN DUPED.

OFFER OF WORK ON FARM.

WOMAN ALLEGEDLY TO BLAME

(By Telegraph—Press Association.)

NELSO v J, Sunday

A number of unemployed were induced to part with their last few pounds in the hope of finding work at a 2000acre farm in the Nelson district.

Some of the men involved stare that about three months ago an advertisement calling for a business agent was put in the Wellington newspapers. The successful applicant set about engaging the 150 men which his »raployer, a woman, said she required. There were many applications, but when it was found that money was required most of those who applied were forced to drop out. The woman said she wanted the men to develop a 2000-acre mining and timber-growing property. She said there was plenty of gold waiting to be mined, in addition to timber-cutting for firewood and posts. She also wished to construct roads to and through the property. Jhe tale was very plausibly told, and some of the applicants who had a few pounds to spare eagerly accepted the easy conditions offered. The woman asked for £3 for each applicant's fare

to the farm, plus £3 for a fortnight's food until the works became established. Some of the men paid the full amount, but others who had less were allowed to proceed to Nelson on the payment of £3 only. Eventually a party of ten hopefui workers, including a married couple engaged as cooks, left Wellington with instructions to go to a certain hotel foi breakfast if they were not met on the wharf by a motor lorry. A lorry was not there to meet the boat when it arrived in Nelson, and the party proceeded to the hotel, where, to their temporary dismay, the proprietor informed them that he had received no of their coming. However, he accepte< their story, and gave them a mea: Later he received a reassuring telegrai from Wellington, On the strength o. which board was given. The unfortunate men subsequentl; found themselves stranded in Nelson Some eventually went to the reliet camp at Kawatiri, and others tried to find work about the city. Two of the victims, both single men, walked in from Kawatiri on Wednesday, and on Thursday made application to the I Charitable Aid Board to have their fares paid back to Wellington.