AN UNDESIRABLE 155511-GRANT.

Otago Witness, Issue 2808, 8 January 1908, Page 53

AN UNDESIRABLE 155511GRANT.

;, WELLINGTON, January 3. 'The Customs Department has refused to I allow a deaf and dumb man who came over from Sydney by the Moeraki to remain.' in the TDominion, and the Union Com-,^-pany are sending him back by the Maheno - to-night. The man is a native of Sydney, ,in_ robust health, a slaughterman, and had intended leturning to Australia at the end of the 6eason, during which he expected--~to_ earn £5 a week.

■_ r Th© Customs authorities base their .■refusal on clause 3 -of the Imbecile Pas- - sengers Act, which states, among other

.that if a deaf and dumb passenger - is likely, in the opinion of the Collector of Customs,- to become a charge upon the - -public, the x owner of the vessel shall enter into a bond for. £100. The Union Company does not >see its way to give a bond, and the man will be returned to the land of his birth. It is stated that he had come across

to New Zealand to work at rates which would have brought him in £5 per week, and that he had intended to return to Australia of his own accord at the end of the summer. He is a slaughterman by trade, and is said to be in robust health.