MARINER FINED.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20092, 22 November 1930, Page 3

MARINER FINED.

NO WIRELESS IN SHIP. (FILERS ASSOCIATION THJtGBAM.) AUCKLAND, November 31. Under a prosecution by the Marine Department, Geoffrey George, master of tho steamer Hikurangi, appeared before Mr F.'K. Hunt, S.M., in the Magistrate's Court, charged with taking the ship to sea without a wireless installation and with carrying five more passengers than the number allowed by his certificate. ;

Mr Hubble, for the Marine Department, said the vessel had a certificate of survey as a. foreign, going steamer. The usual crew was fifteen, but on. this trip to Norfolk Island they had a special permit to take three more, .who were Bigned on as members of the crew. On the return trip, however, they brought back four or five passengers, making the total 22 or 23 on board. The largest number which the ship was entitled to carry without being equipped with "wireless was 19.

On behalf of the " master, counsel pleaded not guilty. He said one of three extra people taken down to Norfolk Island was not allowed to land there by the authorities, who requested Captain George to . bring, back three or four people who had been stranded on the Island and could not afford to pay their fares back to New Zealand via Sydney. Captain . George carried an extra lifeboat on account of the additional complement. Captain George was convicted and ordered to pay costs. . = "The lives of people on board ship are in the hands of the master," said Mr Hunt. "The matter of failing' to carry a radio is a soripus one. In any' case the defendant should have cabled, from Norfolk Island for permission to carry the extra passengers."