Desertion Charge

Grey River Argus, 12 April 1948, Page 8

Desertion Charge

Pleading through his counsel, Mr M. B. Scully, that the conditions on the Port Line ship, Cordillera, which he deserted at Wellington on March 22, were not the best, Donald Sutherland Rankin, a seaman, was convicted and fined £lO by Messrs J. M. Robertson and G. Aitken, Justices of the Peace, on Friday afternoon at Westport. Rankin had come to Denniston, where his brother, a recent immigrant, was residing, and got a job in the State mine. He then gave himself up to the police. Mr M. Levestam, representing the shipping company, said that desertions were becoming too frequent, and he had been asked to claim the full penalty of a month’s imprisonment. Mr Scully said that Rankin had served for six years in the Royal Navy, and he had a good war record. He suggested that no good purpose could be met by sending the accused to prison when he was doing good work in the mine, and hs was wanted back by his employers.