STOWAWAYS IN AWATEA

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 19887, 15 March 1939, Page 12

STOWAWAYS IN AWATEA

QUARTETTE IN COURT ADMITTED TO PROBATION (Par Proas Association.) AUCKLAND, this day. Four stowaways were handed into police custody yesterday morning when the Awatea berthed at Auckland from Sydney. Two were New Zealanders, and all were admitted to probation by Mr. C. R. Orr Walker, S.M., when they subsequently appeared before him in the Police Court. Tlie men were Maurice George Meason, aged 35, a bootmaker and confectioner, Sydney, Ifaigh Gillies, aged 39, a mechanic and fitter, 'Sydney, John Aliier Anderson, aged 24, labourer, of Takanini, and Cecil Charles Butterworth, aged 26, New Plymouth. Each pleaded guilty to a charge of stowing away. Senior-Sergeant Calwell and the purser of the Awatea both stressed that the offence of stowing away was becoming serious, no less than 12 men having been arrested for stowing away within the last month The magistrate remarked that the offence of stowing away was becoming far too common, while in some cases, men with criminal records or tendencies were getting into the country. “I think I will try a new way of dealing with these cases,” he added. “If I send you men to prison, you will only be a charge upon the State when you come out. You will each be admitted to probation for 12 months and ordered to pay £9, which is the amount of the fare, within three months. Probation will be in the interests of the country, for it will have the effect of keeping you all under supervision for the period. If it is found that probation encourages the offence, then imprisonment will have to be imposed.”