Crippled New Zealander Deported From Canada

NZ Truth, Issue 1174, 31 May 1928, Page 1

Crippled New Zealander Deported From Canada

ONE CHANCE IN THO

'SAND THAT HE'LL EVER WALK AGAIN

Terrible Moment

A Sublime Faith

INDOMITABLE COURAGE OF FRANK HYDE Lying Helpless, His Spine Crushed By Heavy Vehicle, He Still Speaks of Silver Lining!

-•mmtmummimiiumumiciitiiuiiiniimitiiumiimiuilMliimmmimnaiimmmiimiiiiiiuiimiuim«im»u^ llllimmuiiiiiiimir H jittiiiutinitiiiHiuiiitittitMiiHiitiiiiuiiiMiitiiiiiiiiuuiiiiiiiiiiitiiiiiHiiiii iMiifiiiiiiiiiiiitituititiiiitiiituiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiitiiiitiiiiiiiittiMiiiiMMMiiininiDNiiiiiiiiiuiiiiiiiutiuiiiiitiiiiiiiiiiiituiiitiiiiiiitiiniitiiu initwirtniMiuiiHtiiflißWHininnfliiniHMinitHitutHniiiMHiiiHiinuiMiunHhiH \\ (From "N.Z. Truth's" Special Commissioner.) • ' ■ IK If "The doctors say I have one chance m a thousand of getting better and lam betting on that one chance to pull me through the f f 11 cloud Jo the silver lining. . . I feel confident that I will walk and work again m a few years. .." || jf Gleaming out like a jewel of precious worth through the infinite pathos of those words written by young Frank Hyde, as he \\ II lay m Vancouver General Hospital, with severed spinal cord and entirely paralysed m the lower part of his body, is that || [I indomitable spirit of the fighter. || 11 11

AND now, back here among his "am folk," young Frank Hyde still holds oia — the courage that enabled him to pen that declaration of hope and cheer to his brother, Harry, still helps him to greet you with a smile that should make New Zealand proud to claim him as a son. He is as full of courage and hope now, as he lies m the Auckland Public Hospital after his recent voyage from Canada by the "Aorangi," as he was when a stranger m a strange land with neither friends nor relatives to visit and cheer him. The supreme tragedy of it! This young son of New Zealand left his country m search of adventure! criminal bjr ■■'■'■ : . - ; -•: ■ " HiS story^'goes back to the time when, 'as a general rouseabout and gardener for one of New Zealand's wealthy women, Miss Ferguson, he grew tired of the humdrum life, and, responding to the call of wanderlust, he determined to go to Canada. All his life had been spent m and around Gisborne, but now the compelling call of adventure gripped him. That was how Frank Hyde came to sail by the "Niagara" for Vancouver last year. When he stepped ashore at the end of the voyage on October 14, 1927, he had £35 m cash m his possession. He secured work quickly. The man who engaged him was a Scotsman, named W. J. Park, general manager and president of the Frazer Valley Milk Producers' Association, Vancouver. What experience did Hyde have m farming work, Park asked him. at their first interview. His qualifications apparently satisfied his employer, who then told him he would send him out to the, farm to his manager, a man named Smith. In the weeks that followed the young New Zealander evidently satisfied the farm manager as to his usefulness. Then came the day m Frank Hyde's life which was to see him horribly and cruelly maimed and thrown by Fate into the discard, thousands of miles from his home and country.

A neighbor wanted some assistance m bringing a load of wood to his farm. Young Hyde was told to take the dray to the bush, help load the wood and drive back again. ! The vehicle was a ramshackle affair and the harness little better. Suddenly, the animal, a restive, badI tempered mare, jumped forward m a ! short, primitive bush-track and Hyde was jolted off, falling between the front of the dray and the horse. Even then, all might have gone well with him, had not an unkindly Fate decreed otherwise. In falling, his body struck the horse's hock, turning him so that he fell at. right angles to the animal, but partly under the dray. The left wheel of the vehicle he could see on top of the protruding log — and there he lay for a breathless second, directly m its path. Then — down crashed the heavy wheel upon his side and hip. His maimed body was pushed along by the wheel until his feet became entangled m the undergrowth and also the upper part of his body. Young Frank Hyde's back was broken, the heavy wheel passing over him. Lying m the Auckland Hospital, he told his story simply and quietly to "N.Z. Truth's" representative. Just for a few seconds, there was reflected m his voice, the poignant bitterness m his heart as he said, m describing that terrible moment: "I felt my back go." He was conscious through it all and | as he himself says, m those awful mo-'i ments he lived through an eternity of time. Frank Hyde had about £12 when 1 they took his crumpled, tortured body to Dr. W. Sager's Coquitlam private hospital, about five miles from Pitt Meadows, where the accident happened. I Dr. Sager operated on him, finding two vertebrae crushed and the spinal cord severed.

The doctor approached young Hyde's employer, Park, and asked him if he intended to pay his employee's medical expenses.

"When Park did not respond, the doctor then asked Hyde to defray his medical expenses out of the £ 12 he still possessed.

Two or three days later, Park visited the hospital with Smith, his manager.

"Is there anything we can do for you?" "Was his greeting to Hyde. "Yes," said the patient, ''Xou caa paj; my

medical expenses while I am here m hospital and my wages until I am able to work again." Park's reply to this was that farmers did not come under the workers' accident compensation and it was not compulsory for them to insure their employees. This interview terminated with Park stating that he was not liable. The treatment accorded Frank Hyde by his employer is a matter upon which the last word has not yet been said. Of just as much importance to the people of New Zealand is it that they should know the treatment meted out to a son of the Dominion by the authorities of a sister dominion. „- Jt isvag; l itppar'eftt.i^^9ii>Qay;s-' business; to- lodate the New Zealand Government's accredited representative m Vancouver and acquaint -him of this unfortunate young New Zealanders plight; after he was placed m the general hospital m that city. That is,

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always assuming New Zealand has a representative m Vancouver. Hyde consulted legal men m Vancouver and they buoyed him up with hope on the almost infallible nature of his case against the wealthy farmer, Park. That is as far as the matter ever went at that juncture. Finally, m desperation, Hyde wrote Park personally, but received a reply J through the firm of Reid, Wallbridge and Gibson, barristers and solicitors, R. L.. Reid, K.C., personally attending to the matter. . Here is what the letter says: "Without prejudice," to commence with the time-honored legal precaution. "Mr. Park, for whom we act, has handed us your letter to him . . . Our client, Mr. Park, very much regrets that you have met with the injuries received by you, but repudiates any liability m any respect m connection with the injuries received by you. "Without prejudice, however, Mr. Park is prepared to make you a small gift, but it must not be taken m any way as an admission that he is liable to you m any manner m respect of the injuries," etc. The letter continued by stating that "the* be|^erv Mr. ffi, IL^ils,"- .would &£

prepared to discuss the matter, "without prejudice," m order to "help you m your unfortunate circumstances." Frank Hyde agreed to accept 200 dollars, about £ 40. What else could he do? It did not, of course, debar him j from future legal action. I Throughout, he had shown a gameness of spirit under the crushing blow which deprived him of all that life held dear to young, virile manhood. Home looked good to him — and New Zealand was his home. He asked the Canadian authorities to send him back, requesting of his doctor that they be approached. The Canadian Immigration Board sent officials to go into, his case '■ and after ;^oonferen.cejit ; :was. : ae i r.: +; .. " 'Surely it is not a matter bf' i depo"'rt» ing me?' I asked them," said Frank Hyde to "Truth's" representative. "They told me that it was not their intention to deport me m the true sense

of the word, but that was only a way of putting it.

"I wanted to come home. I knew nobody over there and I had my brother and sister herei n New Zealand.

"I notice that the papers here say there were several prominent business men of Vancouver on the wharf to see me off.

"The only person who catne to the ship to see me was a clerk from the office of Park's solicitors. 'He came "to pay me the 200 dollars, which I was unable to obtain until I actually went aboard the Aorangi."

That was how this young New Zealander, maimed shockingly on a Canadian farm through no negligence on his own part and denied all compensation save a paltry dole, left the shores of Canada. . .

Having once arranged to deport him, the authorities took not the slightest interest m him, further than to see that he was placed aboard the vessel m its hospital ward.

They left him under the stigma of deportation and it was apparently up to the crippled New Zealander to dispel any wrong impression as best he could.

The matter was given publicity m the Vancouver papers, but no move Whatever was nxade lay Uie .New Zea-

land Government's representative m Canada — if such an individual exists there. Was it at all necessary for the Canadian authorities to have published the fact that Hyde was being deported because this was merely a formal act of grace on their part? ■ That, at any rate, could have been withheld from the public and Hyde sent back presumably aa a passenger on the "Aorangi." He was comfortable aboard the vessel, but he declares that he owes his comfortable voyage to no others than the stewards, who proved themselves men m every sense of the word. l± J-?#.;; n J?.fe ; W>ke >tb.eL jnistake of thinks ing young Hyde is whining about his treatment and the bitter blow that Fate has handed out to him. He has merely stated the facts— and these have been given because of the interest aroused when it became known that a crippled New Zealander had been deported from Canada, that he was no criminal, but a man left destitute by a wealthy employer m whose service he had been broken and left with "a. thousand-to-one chance of ever being able to walk or work again." In every line of his cheery letters, written fom the Vancouver General Hospital to his brother, Harry, of Matapiro, Fernhill, Hastings, there is wonderful optimism and a note of courage that is a revelation, all the circumstances being taken into consideration. "It will be years before I will be able to stand on my feet, if that will ever be ... the doctors are verjr doubtful about it. "I don't suppose it would be possible for you to come to Auckland. I would be greatly pleased to see you again ... But don't go to the trouble and expense to come to Auckland . . . "It is not a case of deportation, they can't call it that. It is simply because I want to go and under the circumstances they can't keep me out of my own country." Even m his own great trouble, young Hyde was considerate to his brother

and the possibility that the expense would be too much.

His brother, who is married, with a family, went to Auckland, though, and the reunion was worth while to both.

To Frank Hyde they might treat him as his late employer had done, but with a sublime faith he believed they could not keep him out of his own native land.

"I have nobody over here," he wrote, "and I want to get back among my own people . . . . *

"Well, Harry, I will have a brother and a sister-in-law who are so kind to me. It makes me glad to think that you are willing to take me m and care for me until I am able to walk again and work, perhaps . . •"

The thought of work even then, as he lay with a broken spine, was

uppermost m young Hyde's thoughts and he spoke of perhaps being able to secure work near his brother.

In a further letter to his brother, Hyde strikes a note that will appeal to those who have been abroad and understand the overwhelming longing for the home shores that comes sooner or later to the traveller. "Time seemed to 'fly to-day; I have been reading those papers and I think I have read your letters over about six times. It was good to get 'Truth.' | "While looking over the pictures and! stories, I drifted away to New Zealand and when I put down the papers I came to life and found I was still m hospital m Canada. The true Canadians are fine people and very kind. This place is swarming with Yanks . . ." Frank Hyde has not lacked for friends now that he is back home. The legal aspect of his case will be attended to by his brother's solicitors, Miln and Meek, of Auckland, and that firm has signified that the matter will not rest where it was so casually left by the Canadian legal men. It will cost money, though, and there is a wealthy man to fight. Meanwhile, Frank Hyde is smiling and happy, still showing that grim determination of the New Zealander ably epitomized m Kipling's lines: "If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew "To serve your turn long after they are gone, "And so hold on, when there is nothing m you "Exeunt the will which says to them: i.