SEAT SOUGHT FOR McBRIDE

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30930, 10 December 1965, Page 1

SEAT SOUGHT FOR McBRIDE

(From Our Own Scporttr)

WELLINGTON, Dec. 9. Kenneth Joseph Bernard Dalbray Mcßride is still in Wellington. He will leave by air. as soon as the Immigration Department can secure the necessaiy clearances, and can find a seat for him in an aircraft.

Immigration officials would have been glad if he had left, as he planned, on Tuesday night This would have meant- that debts' incurred in New Zealand would have been unpaid.

The only asset in his possession, it seems, has been the sir ticket on which he intended to leave the country. This was surrendered by Mcßride on Tuesday night

Since then, all that has been keeping Mcßride in New Zealand has been the clearingup of his accounts. This amounts to the cashing of the ticket by the airline, and the signing of papers returning £173 to a young woman from whom he borrowed it plus the repayment of part of a debt of £lOO owed in Christchurch.

Immigration officials are not prepared to say yet who will pay for Mcßride’s ticket. The Minister of Immigration has authority to purchase an air ticket in cases like thia, but any money left in possession of Mcßride can be taken to defray part of the cost.

Mr M. J. Powies, the Wellington solicitor responsible for having Mcßride arrested by bailiffs at Wellington airport, said today that the financial matters were “in course of being taken care of,” but preferred to give no details. Immigration officials believe he may go tomorrow. The face value of the air ticket

is £253. The Wellington debt has firtt claim on thia, which would leave about £BO. There is still the possibility that other creditors will come forward, but this need not delay Mcßrideb departure.