Stowaway Reports Being Investigated

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31462, 31 August 1967, Page 12

Stowaway Reports Being Investigated

Stowaways have been travelling in vessels sailing between Lyttelton and the Chatham Islands, and the Marine Department is investigating.

Most of the stowaways are believed to be fishermen travelling between Lyttelton and the Chatham Islands in the course of their work. They choose this method of travel because of the inadequacy of normal transport between the Chatham Islands and New Zealand.

Some fishermen have made the trip several times by stowing away, and the traffic has been going on for months. The practice is widely known in Lyttelton and the Chatham

Islands, and is generally regarded with amusement. It has also been suggested that there were stowaways on board the Holmdale when she made her last trip to the Chatham Islands.

There were reports that a vessel which had arrived at Lyttelton from the Chatham Islands this week had stowaways on board, the senior administration officer of the Marine Department (Mr A. M. Minett) said in Wellington last evening. A report had been prepared in Lyttelton by the superintendent of merchant marine there (Mr B. J. T. Simons) and had been sent to Wellington. The report had not yet arrived in Wellington. Because he had not seen it, and because of the possibility of prosecutions, there was no further comment he could make, Mr Minett said.