Youth Who Wanted To be a Sailor

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 66, 9 June 1927, Page 1

Youth Who Wanted To be a Sailor

SENTENCED FOR THEFT A WEEK TO PAY £l4 Q REAT as the loss the Royal Australian Navy sustained this morning, it will have to put up with it. Harley Townshende Lowe, aged 22, wanted to be a sailor, and had the law not stepped in he proposed crossing the Tasman to join the Commonwealth sea-going forces. Maybe he had ideas of becoming a “telegraphist” (in the dot-dash department of the senior service), for during the latter part of last year he put in some preliminary training on his own account by selling wireless instruments. Had he not deducted £ 5 5s from the proceeds of one sale and failed to account for that sum, as well as £1 5s given to him by anothei’ customer to procure a licence, he might have achieved his ambition. As it was, fate decreed that he should-stand in the clock at the Police Court this morning to be sentenced for his two offences. Chief-Detective Cummings told the court that as far as could be ascertained his character had been satisfactory in the past. He had been living above his means, however, that was his trouble. “I have enough money to pay my fare across to Australia,” said Lowe. “I can make restitution if I don’t go.” If finance is the bar between Lowe and his ambition, he will not join the Royal Australian Navy for some considerable time—not until he has paid back the £ 7 to his former employers, and paid yet another £ 7 in fines, to say nothing of saving up enough on top of this for his fare to Sydney. The young man who wanted to be a sailor was given a week to find the money, on condition that he reports daily to the police. Twenty-one days’ gaol awaits him should he not be successful.