HENDRICKSEN'S HARD ROAD

NZ Truth, Issue 882, 21 October 1922, Page 5

HENDRICKSEN'S HARD ROAD

A Kit Bag Of Troubles

Persistency, it seems, will all difficulties. Robert Bruce woke up to that years ago, and v now a New Zealandei' has demonstrated the truth of the assertion and earned distinction by his determination. 'This is Cecil Hendricksen, a humble working man, who signed on the Waimate last January as a fireman, and was paid off m England with the rest of the crew when the vessel went into dock. He. was faced then .with the. problem of how to return to New Zealand and his wife and two children. However, he at length secured a job -on the Surreyi bound for Sydney, and set sail. But he was taken ill early m the voyage, and put off at Cape Town. From there he was returned to England as a distressed seaman, and on regaining his health was JUST WHERE HE STARTED. / Nothing daunted by^the absence of further jobs, he stowed away on the Remuera, and had got as far as iriid- ; channel when the vessel came into collision with another, and Hendricksen was among those rescued and returned to England. Then he tried the Corinthic as a stowaway, but was detected at the last moment, and put ashore.. Hendricksen , never let up. He hung about the docks, and at last came an opportunity to stow away again; this time on the Paparoa. To be sure, he concealed himself this time with extraordinary care, and did not emerge until. LAND WAS MILES AWAY, and his waist belt was loose .even at ,the first hole. Tremblingly, he iwas introduced to the skipper, and gratefully he received permission to stay aboard if he worked. This Hendricksen did With a will, and m September stepped on to- New Zealand soil after eight months' absence, with a very good 'r*'. Itiflcate from the captain. For ha\f \gstowed away, however, he had anotuer ordeal to go through, and thai; was an appearance before a Magistrate, but he grot clear of that fairly well, for although a conviction was entered he was merely oi-dered to come up forsentence when called upon. "Then Hendricksen might have imagined his TROUBLES WERE BEHIND HIM, but such was not the case, for an ordeal of domestic infelicity awaited him. To his spouse he went Immediately, but instead of lbving- arms and a .warm welcome his portion was the cold shoulder and glassy eye. She declined, emphatically to allow the mariner to return. As on a theatre programme, three or four weeks elapse. The next scene is' the Wellington Magistrate's Court, with Mr. Hunt, S.M., on the bench, and Lawyers Tanner and Ward appearing for hubby and his wife respectively. The cause of,all this was that Elsie Hendricksen prayed for separation and maintenance , orders for herself and two children on the ground of her husband's cruelty and failure to maintain. She came. from England, she said, and the time of their mating was m February,. 191 S. , -Hubby, she went on, used to "gamble his . - MONEY AT THE CHOWS," and strike her across the face. He left £12 10s at the shipping office for her, but on collecting- it she discovered he had signed on for a single trip and not the round trip as he had said he in T tended, and she had to secure charitable aid during his absence. She admitted having been left her husband's military pension of £3 5s a month and £50 worth of 'furniture. Since his return, he had given her only £2. The Magistrate: Can't you pull along with him?— No, I would not trust myself with him again. * (Lawyer Ward: There is the gambling...- ■ The Magistrate, (with a smile) • We have shut up the pak-a-poo places (laugh tor from the usual assembly of Court loungers), Complainant went on to say that the man "did not know how to treat a woman." y tt V B , u t y ? u m ' a T rn ' ed returned the Magistrate He insisted that more concrete evidence of cruelty and of failure to maintain would have to be brought before an order was warranthad stated that he had a lann ei PARSON IN COURT who had attempted to effect a reconciliation and who could testify to the husband's desire to be reinstated m his wife's esteem. The hushnmi )ni t get far with his evidence when ?h°« Magistrate cut the pro?eediiSs s nSt and adjourned the case for a fortnight -with the advice that they talk it ove r and resume their former relations .