STRANDED NEW ZEALANDERS

Taranaki Daily News, 5 November 1921, Page 10

STRANDED NEW ZEALANDERS

London, August 5. A number of men from New Zealand discharged from steamers in London have been calling at the High Commissioner’s office for financial assistance. Recently as many as seven called in one day— a decided embarrassment to the Department, which is not primarily a philanthropic one. The stranding of these men comes about in this way: Shipping companies invariably sign on their crews for the voyage to New Zealand and back to England. A number, however, desert in the Dominion, and their places have to be filled by men taken on merely for the single voyage to the Home Country. A great many men jump at these vacancies as an opportunity "of getting abroad, and they make no provision whatever for their return journey, probably in the vain hope that they will easily find work in England. As a matter of fact, the wages they receive would be almost enough for a return passage, but this quickly disappears in London, and they are left in financial difficulties. The shipping compan its are bound to cater for their regular crews, and are not always in a position to provide work for the return journey. < Obviously the trouble is bound to recur. but it is well to warn any men who think the opportunity of working a passage Home is. not one to be missed that they should make provision for themselves when they do arrive, for the chances of getting work of any kind in England at the present time are exceedingly few, and a desire to travel the. world to-day without the necessary means can only end in trials and difficulties.