DESPERATE MOTHER

Hawera Star, Volume L, 5 August 1930, Page 9

DESPERATE MOTHER

STOWS AAV AY ON LINER

THREE CHILDREN WITH HER

COLOMBO, July 22. Mrs Amelia Bennet, driven tc desperation by her husbands futile search for work in Australia, stowed away with her three, children on board the Moreton Bay at Fremantle. Before the steamer sailed she nui herself in the bathroom, where she stood shivering all night; while hei youngest child, wrapped in «• skirt, was cradled in the bath. The mother. not knowing tne whereabouts of her other children— Leslie', 15, and Edna, 14 —confessed that she was a stowaway next mornino- and was re-united with the children at mid-day. The boy had sheltered beneath a tarpaulin on deck and the girl, after wandering about the ship, had fallen asleep in a secluded corner. The mother and children were quartered in the isolation hospital aft. Sympathetic passengers raised £l2 foi them. The mother appeared in court at Colombo to-day and arrangements were made whereby she will be accommodated with the children at the Y.M.C.A. until they are sent back to Fremantle by the next steamer.