ROBBED OF ALL HIS MONEY

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 95, 16 January 1939, Page 13

ROBBED OF ALL HIS MONEY

Ship’s Passengers Help Young Irishman

VICTIM OF CONFIDENCE TRICK IN LONDON

By Telegraph—Press Association. AUCKLAND. January 15.

The victim or a confidence trick in London just before the Rimutaka sailed for New Zealand, a young Irishman. John Kirwan, would have stepped ashore penniless on Saturday after the liner arrived, had it not been for the generosity of the other passengers. He lost all his money, about £9, in the refreshment room of Victoria Station after he had been told by a chance acquaintance who professed to be travelling to New Zealand also by the Rimutaka thait his Irish money would be useless in the Dominion. This man told Mr. Kirwan that lie should never have been allowed to travel with Irish money to England, where it is subject to unfavourable exchange, and offered to change it for him, saying he wanted to change some of his own. Mr. Kirwan handed his money over to him. His plight was discovered in the ship later, and a subscription list was opened among the other passengers, the collection yielding almost £lO in New Zealand money, so that Mr. Kirwan stepjied ashore with slightly more than he had in Loudon to spend a holiday in New Zealand andwisit relatives.