for Shipowners
p. 39 · Read in the full issue
Making Life Difficult for Shipowners Stowaways Become Public Nuisance in Fiji
Prom Our Own Correspondent
Suva, Aug. 28.
AFTER being delayed for an hour to permit an intensive daylight search for stowaways, the Union Company’s ship, Wairuna, sailed from Lautoka, Fiji, at 7 a.m. on August 24. No stowaways had been found, but at 9 a.m. the Wairuna was back to empty out six en terprising young men who had materialised in No. 4 hold.
Three of them —two part-Europeans and an Indian —are reported to have travelled to Lautoka from Suva for the express purpose of stowing away. The other three were Fijians from Lautoka.
They were taken over by the police.
Stowing away is a popular activity at Fiji’s ports. One of the Lautoka trio went to Vancouver in the Waihemo in April and was brought back by the Wairuna in June.
Fiji’s most publicised stowaway, how ever, is Jonasa Nasau, aged 16, who travelled to and from Melbourne and Sydney in the Wairuna, and who, by his own account, had a pretty good time. He arrived back with a new leather case, a comprehensive outfit of clothes and other gifts from benevolent organisations at Sydney.
There is usually general sympathy with the instinctive love of adventure which prompts people to stow away in ships, but, these days, stowaways often involve dollar-wastage for oil fuel as well as delay to ships and, consequently, ex pense to the shipowners.