LONGING FOR ENGLAND.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 83, 9 April 1929, Page 7

LONGING FOR ENGLAND.

STOWAWAYS BROUGHT BACK

TRANSFERRED AT SEA.

FOUR MEX FIXED £o EACH.

(r.y Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLIX(iTOX. this day.

Four men—Walter Yearsley, motor mechanic, apod 21; James Higgins, seaman. 25>; Clarence. Richardson, a butcher, 31; William J. Brinkman, labourer, 23—were charged to-day with stowing away on the Tairoa. when she left Wellington for England on April They were transferred to the Tainui at sea and brought back to Wellington. Counsel for the Shaw, Savill Company said the men had conducted themselves well on both vessels, and work well. The point he wished to stress was that one of the accused had escaped in an American port, where the immigration laws were very strict. The ship might have been, held up indefinitely until he was found, and the company also would have been obliged to enter into a substantial bond on behalf of each of the men. In reply to the magistrate's question, two of the accused said they had been in Xew Zealand for a few years, but they eon Id not get work. They had each tried to work their passage back to England, but were not able to sign on a ship. They wanted to get back to England somehow, for there they would at least have a home to go to. They had no intention of getting off at an American port. Eacii accused was fined in default 14 day-,' imprisonment.