YOUNG TRAVELLER

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 9 August 1924, Page 7

YOUNG TRAVELLER

FIVE-YEAR-OLD BOY’S LONG JOURNEY. CHRISTCHURCH, Ang. 6. Shortly after the arrival of the ferry steamer Mararoa at Lyttelton to-day, Constable Baynes was accosted by a woman, who informed him that a very small child wlio was in a first-class carriage on the ferry train was apparently lost, not having been, met at the ferry steamer by its relatives. On entering the train the policeman found a, child of five with a label attached to its left wrist, which bore the name of the child’s grandmother, who resides in Christchurch. The child was comfortably .seated in a corner of the carriage, quite unconcerned, and when asked to follow the policeman did so fearlessly. Constable Baynes took charge of the child, who informed him that he had come from Taumarunui. He chatted cheerfully with the constable. Just as the constable was proceeding towards the police station a woman caught up to him and informed him that she was the child’s grandmother. She had been waiting for the child to come off the vessel, but had riot seen him.

The same child made a similar trip at two and a half years old. Investigation made on the Mararoa elicited the fact that the child came on board at Wellington with a lady passenger as a saloon passenger, but whether the lady was really in charge of the child, or just picked him up is not known.