Still Good Keen Man

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30339, 15 January 1964, Page 12

Still Good Keen Man

(From Our Own Reporter)

WELLINGTON, Jan. 14. The best-selling New Zealand author, Barry Crump, found halfstarved on a Great Barrier Reef island last week, is still having his troubles. And, like so many of his fictional characters, is living on his wits. Mr Crump yesterday placed a trans-Tasman telephone call to his publisher in Wellington—collect. He was half-way through his conversation before a Sydney switchboard operator remembered an ordinance forbidding collect calls to New Zealand and pulled out the plugs. Consequently no-one knows precisely how funny, or how unfunny, his recent experience proved. _ He did, however, have time to say that he was

“not doing too bad,” had been “let down by some jokers” and thinks he’ll “stick around a while.” He had written a great deal, he reported. Now, he hopes to get a job in Port Moresby. Money from home will be sufficient to guarantee his passage back, entitling him to a permit to stay in Port Moresby. As cheerful as his own books, he managed no more. The line went dead. . , . An N.Z.P.A. - Reuter message from Port Moresby says that Crump will be allowed to remain in Port Moresby temporarily after he obtains money from New Zealand for his passage home. Until the passage money arrived, a permit to stay could not be issued, said the chief migration officer.