NO COUNTRY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23275, 18 February 1939, Page 14

NO COUNTRY

MAN ON STEAMER

QUESTION OF NATIONALITY

AUTHORITIES' PROBLEM

Officials from two State departments and the Matson Line' agency in Auckland, Henderson and Macfarlane, Limited, spent a perplexing day yesterday trying to prove the nationality and destination of Thomas Conniff, aged 42, who had stowed away on the Mariposa, been sentenced to a week's imprisonment at Suva, and returned to Auckland by the Monterey yesterday. Ho claimed American citizenship, but refused to sign an attestation. Ultimately the customs authorities in Wellington proved that he was Irish, and he was allowed to land. From the time tlio Monterey berthed shortly .after seven o'clock in the morning, until a I'ew minutes before the ship was duo to sail, the authorities were unable to determine whether Conniff should be allowed to land, since ho had only nine shillings in his possession, said ho was an American, and did not want to stay in Now Zealand. Detective Moore, of the wharf police stations spent hours in an endeavour to throw light upon the situation. Search ioi Work The United States Consul, Mr. J. G. Groeninger, interviewed the man at the wliarf police station, but lie would not sign any documents that might have helped toward his identification, and he denied ho was a British subject. In an interview, Conniff said he spent over ten years in New York working for tlio Interborough Rapid Transit Subway Company as a foreman labourer. He went to Ireland early in 3935, and toward the ejid of that year he came to New Zealand on tlio Rangitane. He said ho had £l5O when he left Ireland.

"I could not find any work in this country, and my money soon dwindled," Conniff said, "so I went to Australia. Tho same thing happened there, although I went to most States in tho Commonwealth. In the end, through the goodness of Archbishop Kelly, of Manly, my fare was paid back to thiij country. That was in August, 1933. I could not got work here, cither, so whan the Mariposa left Auckland 0:11 February 2 I stowed away. They found me and I was handed over to the police at Suva. No Desire to Stay '"l'm a man without a country, all right. I'm an American citizen, but I've no papers to prove it. I don't want to stay in this country. I want to go back 1;o New York." Inquiries made by tho customs authorities in Wellington showed that Conniff was an Irishman, who first came to the Dominion in 1935. As ho had been imprisoned for stowing away on the Mariposa, ho could not bo further charged at Auckland, and, as he was a British subject, without any criminal record, the jiolice released liim. Here he intends to remain for the time being.