RETURNING IN CUSTODY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 April 1942, Page 3

RETURNING IN CUSTODY

MAN WHO SAILED TASMAN * ALONE. APPEAL DISMISSED IN HOBART. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) HOBART, April 28. The bid for freedom of the New Zealander, Humphreys, ended in the Supreme Court today when Chief Justice Mirris dismissed his appeal against the magistrate’s extradition order.

Mr H. Baker pleaded for Humphreys’s release and said his exploit of sailing a yacht single-handed across the Tasman stamped him as a man of courage, endurance and ability. His parents in England had offered to, make full restitution of any loss. They had even offered to pay his passage back to England to enable him to enlist in the Auxiliary Naval Force. Moreover, Humphreys was prepared to serve in any of the fighting forces in Australia.

Mr Baker argued that the New Zealand sentence of two years in the Borstal institution for theft of a lum-ber-jacket valued at 40s, was savage and indefensible. The Chief Justice, dismissing the appeal, recalled the previous convictions against accused in New Zealand, covering the theft of a yacht valued at £250 and an outboard motor-boat, and also his previous escape from custody.

Humphreys will be escorted back to New Zealand by Detective W. H. Cromwell, who has been in Hobart for several weeks, awaiting the decision of the local courts.