DESERTER’S PRIVATIONS

Evening Star, Issue 25895, 12 September 1946, Page 6

DESERTER’S PRIVATIONS

THREE YEARS IN WESTLAND BUSH SEVERE SUFFERING BUT " HE HAD HIS FREEDOM" (P.A.) CHRISTCHURCH, Sept. 12. For more than three years Private Joseph Oriscoll lived in the South Westland bush after deserting from the Army. His only food was venison, damper, and black coffee, and he suffered severely from toothache. This morning Driscoll pleaded guilty to a charge of desertion before a court martial at Burnham. His counsel, Mr (R. Twyneham, told the court that he had asked Driscoll how,he had managed to live under such harsh conditions, and Driscoll had replied: “I had my freedom.” Driscoll was charged with deserting, in that at Wingatui, on November 11, 1942. when a member of the forces, he absented himself without leave from the recruit training depot .until arrested by the civil police at Haast on August 26 of this year. He pleaded guilty also to a charge of losing equipment and clothing valued /at £5 10s lid. /

When he went on leave Driscoll had his travel warrant made out to Mahi Tahi, the furthest south point to which he could go in Westland, between the Cook and Haast Rivers, said Mr Twyneham. He obtained , a rifle, ammunition, flour, coffee, a small tent, and an axe, and, in his own words, “ headed for the tall timber.” For about three years be lived about the headwaters of the Moeraki River. His food consisted only of venison, a few ducks, damper and coffee. He met hardly anybody, and did not come out of the bush, as he knew the police were looking for him. At one time he suffered from pneumonia, and on one occasion he was washed down the (Moeraki River, losing his pack and saving himself only by catching at a tree that had fallen across the stream.

Mr Twyneham asked for leniency for Driscoll because of his unusual character, the punishment he had already undergone, and the cumulative effect of his experiences.