LEFT STRANDED

Southland Times, Issue 20497, 28 May 1928, Page 7

LEFT STRANDED

HOAX ON UNEMPLOYED WORKERS PART WITH SAVINGS ECCENTRIC WOMAN’S CONFIDENCE TRICK (Per United Press Association.) Nelson, May 26. Details of a confidence trick by which a number of unemployed were induced to part with their last few pounds in the hope of finding work at a 2000-acre farm in the Nelson district have been revealed to a Mail representative. It is eaid that some three months ago an advertisement calling for a business agent was put in Wellington newspapers. A man known to one of those mentioned above was the successful applicant, and he set about engaging the 150 men which his employer said she required. There were many applications in answer to the newspaper advertisement, but when it was found that money was required, most of those who applied were forced to drop out. The woman said she wanted the men to develop a 3000-acre mining and timber growing property at Rappahannock in the Nelson district. She said that there was plenty of gold waiting to be mined in addition to timber cutting for firewood and posts. She also wished to construct roads to and through the property. The tale was very plausibly told and some of the applicants who had a few pounds to spare eagerly accepted the easy conditions offered. The woman asked for £3 for each applicant’s fare to rhe farm plus £3 for a fortnight’s food until the works became established. Some paid the full amount, but others who had less were allowed to proceed to Nelson on payment of £3 only. Eventually a party of ten hopeful workers including a married couple engaged as cooks left Wellington with instructions to proceed to a certain hotel for breakfast if they were not met on the wharf by a motor lorry. The lorry was not there to meet the boat when it arrived in Nelson and the party proceeded to the hotel where to their temporary dismay, the proprietor informed them that he had received no word of their coming. However, he accepted their story and gave them a meal. Later, he received a reassuring telegram from Wellington on the strength of which board was given. The unfortunate ten were thus left stranded in Nelson. Some eventually went to a relief camp at Kawatiri and others tried to find work about the city. Two of the victims, both single men, walked in from Kawatiri on Wednesday, and on Thursday made application to the Charitable Aid Board to have their fares paid back to Wellington. The woman concerned is described as "somewhat eccentric.”