"The Prisoner’s Song”—Nicoia Kalrani Sings it in Caurt

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 45, 16 May 1927, Page 1

"The Prisoner’s Song”—Nicoia Kalrani Sings it in Caurt

Jugo Slav Stowaway Gets Four Months

With the cold prison bars all around nd my head on a pillow of stone Sung in English, the "Prisoner's .ng” is pathetic enough, but when he songster stands in the dock, with lis hands folded across his bosom, ind :ears streaming from his eyes, and sings it in Jugo-Slavian, the pathos is i'uly intense. It was when the magistrate s t vlicola Katrani to Mount Eden for our months this morning that the lugo-Slav’s voice was raised in tenr il anguish. Even after he had been removed 'O he prisoners’ room his voice, full of Mf-pity, floated back into the court “For I've a sad story to tell you: tt’s a story that's never been told.” Katrani’s story has already b :n ild. in part, but the account of his adventures since he left his native Sebenico, on the shores of the Adriatic, is a thrilling one. From Sebenico to Trieste is only 70-odd miles, and at the big Adriatic seaport he found little or no difficulty in boarding a ship bound-for Naples unobserved. Unobtrusively he landed at the port of Vesuvius —without pay ing his fare. Leaving Sunny Italy in his wake, his vovagings took him down through the Red Sea, and across the Indian Ocean to Australia. From Sydney he came to New Zealand, and earlj this year got as far as Suva in the Niagara, but was detected, brought back to Auckland in the Tahiti, a. i to a month’s imnrisonment. How he managed to ehide detection in the various ships which car-

ried him halfway round the world free of charge will make interesting reading should Katrani ever be prevailed upon to write his memoirs. Then on Friday Katrani boarded the Marama for Sydney, but was caught before the ship sailed, brought ashore, and charged at the Police Court on Saturday with being an idle and disorderly person, and also with being unlawfully on board the Marama. Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M., remanded him till to-day to get an interpreter. Detective Robertson, who submitted to a writing test the Jugo-Slav and the passenger whose ticket he had claimed, told the court this morning that he had seen Katrani hanging round the waterfront lately with the avowed intention of stowing away. Far from his native land as he is, the singer of the soulful song has not been without friends to care for him. His countrymen in Auckland have done all they could, but whether from disability or disinclination, he will not work. Katrani protested this morning that he had been in hospital for six months, and some other Jugo-Slavs told a SUN man that he was not very strong. For the next four months Nicola Katrani will languish behind “cold prison bars,” seeing from his cell, maybe, the ships rounding Rangitoto. His heart will indeed he heavy. And, as he gazes out over the Waitemata. breathing in the salt air and thinking of far-away Sebenico, he will sing to : “Now, if I had wings like an angel. Over these prison walls I would fly.”