Ship Deserter Jailed at Greymouth

Grey River Argus, 16 April 1948, Page 3

Ship Deserter Jailed at Greymouth

James McLaughlan, aged 32 years, a trimmer, pleaded guilty in the Police Court at Greymouth, yesterday, to a charge of being absent without leave and without sufficient excuse from the s.s. Fort Cadotte at Lyttelton • on February 28, havingsigned articles in the United Kingdom. He was sentenced by the presiding Justices. Messrs E. O. Henry a'nd G. H. S. Eder, to 14 days’ imprisonment, and an order was made against him that if the master of the vessel concerned makes an application before the expiry of the sentence, the accused is to be placed on board the ship before it leaves New Zealand.

A plea by his counsel, Mr C. R. McGinley, that a man who admitted being absent-without leave from a British . shin 'should be fined and allowed' to continue at his-.work in the mines, rather than be imprisoned, was unsuccessful. WORKING IN MINES.

Senior-Sergeant R. C. Mcßbbie said that accused came to the West Coast and. obtained work at the • Rewanui mine, after, packing his gear. . and '“clearing out” from the Fort Cadotte at Lyttelton on March 8. Some days later ,he went 'to Blackball, where he had been working for the past three or four weeks. Constable Keown arrested him on warrant on Wednesday. Nothing was known against accused, but as the vessel was still in New Zealand waters, and because of the frequency of desertions, the authorities were naturally very concerned. To give evidence as to the character of the accused, Mr McGinley called Alexander McDonald, hotelkeeper, of Blackball, who said that he had found accused “a very decent The accused, said Mr McGinley, was in the Merchant Navy for six years during the war, and while in London he was wounded by a aerial torpedo. Lacking opportunity, the accused desired to come to New Zealand, but he was unable to. find his fare, and as he found the immigration authorities were too slow to respond, he decided to join the - ship to come out.

Mr McGinley suggested that the accused could do more good for the country mining coal than being in gaol. He also drew the attention of the Bench to a recent case in Westport, where a man, working in the mines, had been fined £lO on a similar charge, and suggested that a similar penalty would meet the case before the Court.