"Stabbed in Back”

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 276, 11 February 1928, Page 1

"Stabbed in Back”

CANT GETS THREE MONTHS JUNIOR OFFICERS BLAMED i By Cable. —Press Association. —Copyright. Reed. 9.5 a.m. LONDON, Friday. Three months’ imprisonment was the sentence impostd on Captain A. R. J. Cant, who pleaded guilty to embezzling £'iso belonging to the New Zealand Government. The prosecutor said that Cant had been sent to navigate the motor vessel Maui Pomare from Ireland to New Zealand, certain moneys being placed at his disposal. While Cant was in Ireland, the High Commissioner for New Zealand, Sir James Parr, was informed that certain charges against him were pending in New Zealand. Sir James Parr telegraphed releasing hipa from his duties. Cant shortly afterwards disappeared, taking the £l5O with him. He surrendered to the police on February 4. “I did not know what I was doing,” said Cant from the dock. “Some power swept over me. These charges in New Zealand are due to unscrupulous junior officers who stabbed me in the back 11,000 miles from home.” The magistrate said that it was possible that the charges were trivial. One allegation, “personal conduct,” might be merely drunkenness. —A. and N.Z. Captain Cant was for some years an officer in the Union Steam Ship Company. Afterwards he joined the New Zealand Government service as chief officer of the Hinemoa. Later he was given command of that vessel. He left New Zealand early in -September, 11127, to take command of the Government’s new motorship Maui Pomare, and to bring her to New Zealand.