RUNAWAY SAILORS.

Taranaki Daily News, 12 April 1919, Page 6

RUNAWAY SAILORS.

SEVEN PERSONS CHARGED WITH HARBORING.

An echo of the Thrasher desertions was heard in the Magistrate's Court yesterday morning, when a woman and six men were variously charged with liarboring deserters. The precise charges were as follow:—Wm. Cubbon, with harboring A. Carter, E. Beal, W. Jones, and O Forbes, deserters from the foreign vessel Thrasher; Lucy Rielly, J. H. F -Rielly, and R. S. Gaylard with knowingly and wilfully harboring Wm. M. Jones, a deserter from the Thrasher; and Stanley Rielly, Hugh Rielly, and James C. Fre'win with assisting to harbor Wm. M. Johnson.

Detective Fitzgibbon prosecuted for the police, and Mr. A. H. Johnstoneappeared for the accused, all of whom pleaded guilty.

Mr. Johnstone said on behalf of Cubbon that he was an old seaman himself, and when the deserters told him a story of the hard life they had on the Thrasher he quite naturally took them in, though there was no intention of letting them stay in his house. Gaylard, who worked for the laundry, had occasion to go to the ship on business, and on one occasion he was given what appeared to be a bag of laundry and was asked by some of the men to give them a ride into town. Two men got off his lorry with their "laundry" before reaching town, and the other, Johnson, came in to Gaylard's home. His mother was away at the time and he foolishly allowed the man to remain.

Detective Fitzgibbon pointed out that in the case of Cubbon the offence was a serious one. He knew at the time he took the men that they were deserters. He therefore askdd for a substantial penalty. There were merchants in the town sufficiently enterprising to i bring direct shipments of goods to New Plymouth, and apparently there were people who were just as enterprising in inveigling the» crew away and harboring them. Cubbon knew the men were deserters, and when they left the vessel they went straight to his house. It was a remarkable thing that a day or two afterwards he had asked Constable Wroblenski if the deserters had been arrested, and all the while the men were in his own house. In regard to Gaylard he had denied all knowledge of the affair when first approached by the police, though Johnson was at the time in his house. Mr. Johnstone remarked that it was almost an unnatural thing to expect anyone to "give away" another person who had been befriended. All the accused were convicted and fnes were imposed as follows:—Wm. Cubbon, £7 (costs 7s); Lucy Rielly and R. S. Gaylard, £2 each (costs 7s); Hugh Rielly, £1 (costs 13s); Stanley Rielly, J. H. F. Rielly, and J. C. Frewin, 10a each (costs 7s).