Returning Seamen Put Off Ship

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32349, 15 July 1970, Page 32

Returning Seamen Put Off Ship

(New Zealand Preet Aeeaeiation)

AUCKLAND, July 14.

Two British seamen charged with being absent from their ship without leave were remanded on bail to await deportation when they appeared in the Auckland Magistrate’s Court today after having been ordered ashore by the ship’s master.

Mr A. A. Coates, S.M., refused to imprison the two men, saying they must be lodged at the shipping company’s expense and should be flown to Sydney as soon as possible to rejoin their ship. Raymond Stanley Lawton, aged 19, and Edward Graham Cahill, aged 20, both admitted charges of absenting themselves without leave from the Akaroa in Wellington on July 6. After the Magistrate had heard that the men had tried to rejoin the ship when it reached Auckland and had been put off after the ship left, he said to Mr N. I. Cameron, for the shipping company: “I want an explanation from the shipping company why two men were left stranded on a foreign shore after they tried to rejoin the ship. The company will pay for this if I have anything to do with it” Mr Cameron said the men left the ship on, July 11 in Wellington and came to Auckland. The Akaroa arrived in Auckland yesterday and Cahill and Lawton attempted to rejoin her. They had been told by telephone that they had been paid off in Wellington, he said.

When the ship’s master refused to allow the men to rejoin, they boarded the Akaroa by the crew’s gangway just before the vessel left. They were discovered after the ship had left and were put ashore by a pilot launch. Mr Cameron said that if a conviction were entered the men could be imprisoned pending deportation.

The Magistrate: I am not going to deprive these men of their liberty. The company was irresponsible in putting them ashore. They returned for the purpose of rejoining the ship, and were put ashore forcibly. I don’t like it I am certainly not going to imprison them or convict them at this stage. 1 don’t think it is justice. I hope the company has something to say on this to the master.

Later in the afternoon Mr Cameron said that if a deportation order were made, the company would find accommodation for the men at the company’s cost, and would either fly them to Sydney or make arrangements for them to leave by another ship.

The Magistrate said he was obliged to convict the men and to make a deportation order. He allowed them bail of $2OO each, with the special conditions that they reside at the British Sailor’s Society Home, report to the wharf police station twice daily, and join any vessel or aircraft they were directed to join. The Magistrate said he would ask the police to tell

him when the men had left the country, and if it was too long he would take further steps.

Helicopter Expected.—The first of 16 United States-built helicopters for the R.N.Z.A.F. is expected to arrive at Whenuapai airfied on board a transport aircraft next week.—(P.A.).