AN EXPENSIVE TRIP

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16690, 6 July 1928, Page 7

AN EXPENSIVE TRIP

STOWAWAYS ON KATOA FOUR MEN FINED \ Four young men who boarded the steamer Katoa at Auckland without asking the permission of the master, found the trip from Auckland to Gisborne more expensive than they bargained for, Air. E. C. Levvey, S.M., fining each man £3, in default three days’ gaol, in the Police Court, this morning. The stowaways were found by an officer while the vessel was at sea last night, and as she had to call at Gisborne for cargo the men were brought ashore here by the police this morning.

The accused were David Russell, 27, Henry Wixon, 23. Norman Travers, 22. and George Trillo, 22, who were charged with stowing away on the British ship Katoa at Auckland on duly 4 without obtaining the consent of anyone in authority. All four pleaded guilty. Senior-Sergeant Mae Lean explained that the Katoa, which belonged to the Union Steamship Co., left Auckland on Wednesday for Wellington, but was intercepted by wireless, and instructed to call at Gisborne to pick up cargo. Last night one of the officers on the vessel discovered one of the stowaways, and a further search, brought the other three free passengers to light, and this morning the four men were brought ashore. Russell and Wixon were New Zealanders. Wixon would say that he was anxious to get home/to Invercargill owing to a death in his family, and as he had produced a telegram from his mother, the speaker was inclined to believe the story. Travers was an English seaman who had deserted from a ship at Auckland some time ago. He would suggest that as the fare from Auckland was £3, the men should be ordered to pay that amount, in default a term of imprisonment, and he felt fairly confident that, the money would be forthcoming. The magistrate ordered the men to pay £3 each, the value of the fare from Auckland to Gisborne, in default three days’ imprisonment.