SHIP DESERTER GETS MONTH’S GAOL: BERTH ON COLLIER

Greymouth Evening Star, 29 December 1949, Page 4

SHIP DESERTER GETS MONTH’S GAOL: BERTH ON COLLIER

A claim that he had obtained a berth on a coastal ship after informing the captain that he was from an overseas ship was made by a 20-year-old Scottish seaman, Murdo Mackay, who appeared in the Grey- . mouth Police Court this morning on a charge of deserting from the Dominion Monarch at Wellington on July 19. The accused, who gave himself up to the Greymouth police on Christmas Eve, was a seaman on the collier Poolta, which is bar-bound at Greymouth. He pleaded guilty to the desertion charge and was sentenced to one month’s imprisonment.

Mackay had obtained, immediate employment ashore after deserting the Dominion Monarch, stated Senior-Sergeant R. C. Mcßobie. After two or three months on a fishing boat at Wellington, he decided that he liked the country, and got a$ opportunity five weeks ago to join .the crew of the Poolta as a seaman. He had been there since.

Questioned by Messrs J. H. North and W. E. Pring, J.P.’s, who presided, the accused said that he had signed on on the Poolta with the same name as that on the Dominion Monarch. “Did you show your shipping papers to the master of the Poolta?” asked Mr North. “Yes, when I signed on,” said the accused, who explained, however, that he had no discharge papers from the Dominion Monarch. “You don’t get discharge papers when you jump,” he added. He said he had told the captain of the Poolta that he i was off the, Dominion Monarch. ! “It is the opinion of this court that you should be returned to your ship, but we. have .no jurisdiction in that respect, and to be consistent with pi'evious cases, you will be sentenced to. one month’s imprisonment,” said Mr North.