TO MEET MOTHER.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 84, 10 April 1937, Page 9

TO MEET MOTHER.

BOY'S LONG JOURNEY.

Stranded Aucklander To Go

To Sydney.

LOST PARENTS TRACED

Onited Press Association.—Copyright.

(Received 10.30 a.m.) MELBOURNE, April 9. Gordon Beehre, the ten-year-old Auckland boy who travelled to Melbourne in the Wanganella to join his parents there, but who was left stranded owing to neither his father nor mother being on the wharf to meet him, is going to Sydney to-day. He will there meet his mother, who, it has been ascertained, is ill at the home of a friend and who apparently had no intimation of her son's arrival at Melbourne. The father is travelling in the country and is also ignorant of the boy's plight. The Travellers' Aid Society has been caring for the boy, who will journey to Sydney in care of the guard of the express.

PARENTS' MOVEMENTS. CABLE ARRIVED TOO LATE. News of the departure from Melbourne to Sydney of Gordon Beehre's parents reached Auckland too late for his sailing to be postponed, stated his uncle and aunt, Mr. and Mrs. A. E. Pvke, Boundary Road, Papatoetoe, yesterday. Greatly worried, Mr. and Mrs. Pyke made every effort after April 1, when the boy sailed by the Wanganella, to contact his parents by cable.

They explained that Gordon had been in their charge for the last nine months. His father, who had been employed as a mechanic at Mount Roskill, decided about 18 months ago to try his luck in Australia, leaving Gordon, his only child, in Auckland until he was settled in the new country. Mrs. Pyke was in constant communication with Mrs. Beehre, who was living with her husband at Berrigan, Melbourne. About two months ago they sent money for Gordon's passage. The fact that the boy had to be accompanied by an adult on the ship caused a good deal of delay, but this matter was finally arranged with the help of the shipping officials-., and Mrs. Pyke wrote to Mrs. Beehre about the middle of March to the effect that Gordon would definitely sail on April 1.

While Mrs. Pyke was in the city on April 1 handing the boy over to the passengers who had promised to escort him, Air. Pyke received a cable from Mrs. Beehre, asking them to keep Gordon for another fortnight, as she was moving to Sydney. It was too late to get in touch with Mrs. Pyke in Auckland before the ship sailed, and he immediately cabled to Mrs. Beehre to that effect. This appeared to be the cable which was said to be unclaimed at the Melbourne G.P.O. Next morning Mrs. Pyke sent a cable to the Beehres' Melbourne address, but it was returned marked " address unknown." She also consulted the shipping company. On Tuesday a letter arrived from Mrs. Beehre from Sydney, giving her address as care of the G.P.O. On the same day Mrs. Pyke cabled to the G.P.0., Sydney, advising of Gordon's arrival in Melbourne on Wednesday morning.