“SEEING THE WORLD.”

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 3833, 18 August 1928, Page 1

“SEEING THE WORLD.”

YOUNG BOY’S ESCAPADE,

When a boy of thirteen years “booked in” at an Auckland hotel on Monday evening, the suspicions of the proprietor were aroused, says the Herald. Inquiry by detectives elicited the information that the lad ran away from his parents in Christchurch about a week ago, crossed the South Island to Greymouth, and stowed away on a coastal collier which reached Auckland a few days ago.

The hotel booking clerk received with surprise the boy’s request for a “room,” but when the cost had been told him and the young guest tendered a 10/- note in payment he was booked in under the presumption that lie had arrived to meet parents or guardians. He later casually mentioned that he was about to go on to Rotorua, and as his bearing was that of an intelligent, superior boy, nothing untoward was suspected until a recent morning he tendered £l4 10s for safe keeping in the hotel offijee. Suspecting then that Something might be amiss, tlie licensee communicated with the police, to 1 whom the hoy told his story of “setting out to see the world.”

If he has not seen much of it he may console himself with having at least seen Auckland, where he will remain in the care of the Child Welfare Department until he can be returned home.