SHIP DESERTION IN N.Z.

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27379, 18 June 1954, Page 8

SHIP DESERTION IN N.Z.

STEADY DECREASE IN FOUR YEARS EFFECT OF COMPULSORY DEPORTATION, (New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, June 16. Ship desertion in New Zealand has decreased steadily since compulsory deportation was introduced by the Shipping and Seamen’s Act, 1950. In the year before, 554 men deserted from overseas ships, according to figures given by the Justice Department. The number dropped to 308 m 1951, to 234 in 1952, and to 178 last year. The number for 1954 would probably be about the same, said a spokesman for the department. Crew managers of overseas shipping companies agree that the prospect of being sent back to their own country on the first ship available has effectively deterred would-be deserters. “Before the 1950 act it was easy for any seaman who was a British subject to enter New Zealand by deserting from his ship and serving a month’s imprisonment,” said Mr P. P. Gardiner, crew manager of the New Zealand Shipping Company. “They were then free to stay in the country. “It was a loophole for them to enter New Zealand without any of the usual formalities that persons legally entering the country are subject to?’ Many troublesome persons, and a few with very bad backgrounds, had entered the country in this way, said Mr Gardiner. The position became so bad that compulsory deportation was introduced.

Even New Zealanders who sign on vessels overseas and then deserted in New Zealand must be sent back to the country where they signed on. When the Captain Cook returned to Britain after her last trip to New Zealand with immigrants, she took 36 deserters with her.

New Zealanders had practically no chance of getting one-way trips overseas as replacements for deserters. For every gap in the crew of an overseas vessel made by a deserter, there was another deserter waiting in custody to fill it. Even if a vacancy did occur the shipping company would be reluctant to take a New Zealander, because it would be coinpelled by law to pay his expenses overseas and repatriate him to New Zealand as soon as possible.