Not Prepared To Make Ship Deserters Pay

Chronicle (Levin), 20 December 1949, Page 4

Not Prepared To Make Ship Deserters Pay

» WELLiNGTO-N, Dee. 19. : Stating he accepted the fact that tne Ubipping eompames \vere put to sojne axpen.se to i*epatr.iate "replacements tor * Jes'erters, Mr J. Hessell, B.M., said in (che llagtstrate's Court today that, oelause of uumerous other reasons, he did not think it desirable that ship deserters should be caljed on to pay half -jjie eost of repatriattng replacements. S Asked . by couii-sel tbr a shippmg eornpany that was prosecuting two deserters hn the Court today whether the decision .vould have a bearing on future cases of desertion, Mr Messelj .-aid he did not .vnow what other Magistrates would be doing.

The Magistrate's statement followett a plea by counsei that the usual monesfcary penal'ty of £50' tp be padd to tli-e shipping company be.imposed. Counset .said that New Zealanders had to be taken on to rep-Iace the two- deserters and that the shipping company had had to undertake to repatriate the New ,Zealanders. The Magistrate saitf he was not prepared to consider making an ordek for such a payment. Commenting that the two aeeused appeared to have settled down to good work m New Zealand, the Magistrate adnvitted them to probation for 12 months, and ordered them to pay solieitor's fees and Court costs. The accused, both of whom pleaded giuity to deserting the Trojan S'tar on Novernber 30, were George William- Thompson and Dennis Arthur Purnell. Both were described as stewards^