DRESSED AS A WOMAN

NZ Truth, Issue 1201, 6 December 1928, Page 5

DRESSED AS A WOMAN

How One of Two Lawyers Who Skipped To Australia Got Away

(From "N.Z. Truth's" Special Auckland Representative.)

Two New Zealand solicitors left this country surreptitiously | during recent weeks, for Australia, and were swallowed up m the big 1 cities or took the trail to the great open spaces for which the island continent is famed. They both chose the one steamer to make their getaway, but on different voyages.

MUCH admired by the ladies, greatly interested' m any uplift move- . ment, . female impersonator, and rather a "big noise" m Christchurch, not to mention his solemn calling as a member of the bar, John Black Bachelor is still numbered among the missing. ■ ..''■.'. Bachelor made good and practical use of. his talent for female impersonation when he left the Cathedral. City behind—and more than one lamenting client. :...'■■• • It. has now been discovered be- ! yond doubt that this lawyer ■ trai veiled as a woman to ' Sydney vroB! 1 WeilinETion, and dh&vsd Wo cabin v/ith Gomo tfel!«aw-ptiso&nsors 6V iho a-iik-hosod eau, With a consideration which might be expected. from one who hao besn fl. popular figure among, the ladles for many years, Bachelpr did not disrobe, and robe, - himself m the cabin m the presence of his women cabin-mates. He changed into his georgette nightie or his silk crepe do chine pyjamas m the bathroom, and then climbed into' his bunk with a very maidenly coyness. No galaxy of legal talent on the wharf side to wave farewell, no colored streamers, no flowers, and no grateful gathering of fond clients to, see . the last of Lawyer Hector Robert Malcolm when -he boarded the "Ulimaroa" at Auckland on November 2 last. Whatever may have been -m the mind of I' Malcolm as >he entered upon one . of the. most eventful journej r s , of his life is a mystery, a, matter for conjecture, but it- is not unlikely that he murmured: "Oh!, to be m Sydney now that spring is here."- • ■ • ■• ? ; Lawyer Malcolm was not^seeking the limelight, rather the reverso. As he mingled with the other passengers m the steerage; as the vessel under way, ho had his .

cap pulled over his eyes, and several who glanced at him little thought that he was a member of the legal profession. : When the ship was cleared prior to a search, being made for stowaways, Malcolm waa hustled ashore with the rest, and he stood m the doorway of the wharf shed, casting 1 his keen eyes to one side and another, until at the last minute he hurried up the gangway to- buy a steerage ticket for Sydney. He carried no presentation suit- case — none at all, m fact — and he was. not long m possession of his ticket before he demanded to be shown to his Quarters. -But, ho had overlooked the vast siiols.! dliiferenco which diviceu thoss who travel caloon and In tha forepesk, and he was told by a buay steward not to be m such an adjectival hurry. Malcolm did N not travel under any norn de plume. An Auckland business man identified him beyond all doubt as the Auckland lawyer of that name, and he was naturally curiousas to the reason for one of , so staid a profession travelling steerage. ■' On the arrival of the boat at Sydney the solicitor did not hurry ashore immediately,, but walted'-until most of the passengers had g-one, when he landed on Australian soil. ' , , That" is the- last that had been heard o^ Hector Robert Malcolm, Up tO tllC | time of writinsr. The New Zealand police -are anxious to know his whevonbouts, holding as they do a warrant for his arrest, on the charge that the absconder got away with £700 which belongs- to a widow. Meanwhile, the official assignee has been, appointed' interim receiver m Malcolm's estate, pending the hearing of -a summons adjudicating him a bankrupt. His books and papers hnve been taken possession of and are now m; the assignee's office,' ■"