A FAMILY PARTING.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 16121, 9 May 1923, Page 6

A FAMILY PARTING.

WIFE AND CHILDREN LEFT. A family parting in unusual and upsetting circumstances occurred on the departure of the Marama for Sydney (states the Auckland Herald), when a steerage passenger who had booked passages for himself, his wife, and five children, was forced to make the voyage by himself. Ho had been engaged all the morning com eying his household offects, including a piano, to the wharf and on to the vessel, and the other members of his family were to have come into the city by train and join him on the vessel. Sailing time drew nigh, however, but no family appeared. As the minutes flew by tnq man worked himself almost into a fever seeking a telephone for news of the truant ones. The intervals between the telephonic communications were occupied, greatly to tho amusement of the onlookers, whose sympathies for him were not proof against the humor of tho situation, in running to and from the entrance gates, in the fast-diminishing hope that tho eleventh hour would end his troubles. No sign or word of the truant ones, however, was forthcoming, and as the final departure bell rang he made hurried arrangements with his friends for their care and comfort. With a last frantic look along the wharf, the bewildered husband jumped on to the vessel's deck as the gangway was being let go. Tho mooring lines were cast off, and a few minutes later tho Marama was steaming for Sydney minus six in-: tending passengers. * j