THIRTY-SEVEN YEARS' SERVICE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14507, 26 April 1909, Page 3

THIRTY-SEVEN YEARS' SERVICE

SOMK ISTWKSTIXC: KXPKRIEXCKS. bx ijaolmi: hkatiivs rkcoui). Porty->ix yf.irs ago, in 1863, Mr .1. 11. Bratby. ft woll-snl-np young man of 20, landed at Waiteiuala from tho ship Gertrude. line of his shipmates was I lie gentleman now known as Mr Justice Cooper; and as (he passengers landed 11..M. warship Orpheus wont ashore at Mtuinkau— two noteworthy facts that marked the dawn of a noteworthy career. ,lust at this time New Zealand was in the throes of flic Maori v;ar, ami e.very abie-hodicd man was expected lo take his placo in tlm militia, and, if required, go to the front. Young Bratby. however, joinod the coastal 6ailing service, nnd was employed in the tranf>port of stores, etc., to the troops in the li'dd, and was thereby, under the ttovernmcnt regula(ions, exempt from the necessity of taking his place in t.he fighting line, lie, however, was frequently near the Gcencs of action, and on one occasion his ship lay a little distance off tlx? shore at- Wairoa, and he v/»s ilble to waluli a buttle that, look place between the 70th and the Natives. After the war wai over .Mr llratbv led (lie sea and joined tlio Auckland Armed I'olice Force in 1864. Twelve months later J Hi resigned and took a position with the iirm of Whitson and Lyell, brewers, in Auckland After a brief stay with this lirm lie joined the Police Force again, but at (lie eml of a short term he was once more induced lo enler mercantile life, and a second time lie joined the firm of Messrs •Whitiion and Lvell. Great depression in trade existed about that time, and presently Mr Bratby, feeling its effects, began to look about liim for other employment. He applied for a fiosition in the prison service, and. on March 19, 1872. be was appointed a rarer in Auckland liaol. He took the new employment intending to leave the service presently when trade improved, but when an opening was available a couple of years later he had been twice promoted, and lie dcciikd lo remain in (lie government employ. .Some 6ix years later, after commanding the party that took the first batcli of prisoners from Auckland lo the new Mount Cook Haol at Wellington, lie wan transferred Ut Ihts Inlier iiwlitution as chief warder. Mr Bratby was at "Wellington until 18S6, when he was again proinotwl—this time to lie chief warder at Dunedin. Not long afterwards lie was sent to tciko charge of the Invercargil) Gaol, duriufr the absence of the gaoler there on tick leave, ami lie was gix months in Hinttown. He had only relurned a short while •when, iu April, 1887, he was made gaoler at Invercargill. lie wn& 15 7eti« in Invercurgill. and six years ago was promoted lo be crao'er at Dunedin, where be remained in charge until retired on superannuation a lew weeks ago. ' I Teken as a whole, Mr Bratby said his career bad been singularly free from adventure of a stirring kind, lie .has 6een service in .ill parts of New Zealand (sincc coming ] to Dunedin he has temporarily relieved Mr deary at Lyltolton), but, tuilike Othello, his record included few "disastrous chances" and " hair-breadth escapes." It was as a member of Hie Auckland Police that lie saw more life than at any other time. Soon alter joining he bad been, with five others, Bent down to Thames, where gold had been discovered, and where an irresponsible mining population fought, and scrambled for the yellow metal. Many polire were required for the preservation of law and order, and the assistance of tho six extra constables was required owing lo the great excitement being shown over the election of a superintendent of tho province. A.t (afterwards .Iwlge) (Jillies and Mr Williamson were t.he candidates, and, after a keen fight, iu which the Thames minere never failed to show partisanship, Mr Uillies won. One of the first duties that, devolved upon Warder liratbv after he joined the sen-ice was to form one of an escort of four which took eight prisoners from Auckland to Dunedin—no easy matter in thr»o days. One of the eight was Silas Haley, a man who jhad been sentenced lo imprisonment, for threatening the life of Mr Thomas Russell ill Auckland, and who was nflorivaTds.shot dead by a warder in Dunedin Gaol. On other occasions Mr Bratby escorted prisoners about (lie country, always quite successfully, and he thereby quickly earned promotion in the service. When appointed chief warder at Dunedin in 1886 Mr Bratby was put in charge of tho large gang of prisonem that was then engaged under the Harbour Board in building tho big training wall at the Heads. Here iiis duties were difficult. aJid arduous, but tlio sumo success attended their discbarge, and when presently tlm prisoners v.'ero withdrawn and distributed over the gaols of tlie colony he was able to say that tho whole work had l>een accomplished yvithout the less of a man. During all tlio years that Mr Bratby was gaoler, thousands of prisonore passing though bis hands actually, only threo men actually escaped from custody. Wliilo he was in'charge at Invoreargill a man named liadkn, who was in prison, awaiting trial by tho Supremo Court, got safely away, iuid was at large two months. On tile morning that tho Supreme Court was due to sit. Kadka came awl gave himself up to the authorities, evidently believing that by doing this lie' had somewhat smartly • eluded tho two months' imprisonment Jic would have otherwise .had lo undergo while awaitiug trial. But ho reckoned without his gaoler. The police court, sat a good deal caiTiei than did tlio higher tribunal and Mr Urutbj secured liia man and took him to tlio former institution. Here he was cliarged with breaking out of prison, found guilty, and sentenced to font months' imprisonment. After that, ho faeed tlie Supreme Court. In Dunedin some years ago a prisonei called Olio lMludgan broke out, and gol clear awav. but be was shortly afterwurdi identified in Sydney by means of the linger print system, awl Irrou'jht. back. Tho thin 1 eass of prison-breaking occurred only i few weeks ago, when a prisoner escaped tlx vigilence of'l he warders at. the Heads, am wandered about tlio I'enitif.ula for a coiipl< of days l>efore being captured. Things in the prison service have cbangcc greatly since lirst lie joined, fays Mr Bratby Gaolers had much more power then, and th< kind of treatment a prisoner received de landed much upon the gaoler's oonstdtutioi and U'lnjj'fium'ut. It was quite a tomnioi thing for a man to be put in iions fo three or six months, and. in_ the Aucklani lloal iu thoso days, it. was literally impos flible to hear anything beyond the clankini of the chains. Those wore busy days fo the prison authorities. The Maori war (ii which 30,000 men, comprising 10 regiment of English infantry, four regiments of Pitt' moil, and four regiments of Militia, as we! as artillery, were engaged) was just ovei and the country wae full of discharged sol dicrs. Pitt's men were the rakings of Au. : tralia, fine fellows constitutionally, _bu otherwise in many cases. Giflit. numbei

of f.liom were gathered into the Auckland prison. and, being examined, ilisjjla.vnd on their hacks tlio trellis-work of th» industrious "cat." In those days a. prisoner might lie flogged for insubordination—and they were flogged—but under Mr Hume's adminis'.ration nil thai was done a\ro.T with. 'Jlio-e worn wild days in Auckland. The ! memory of one night : e experiences stands ; out "vividly in Mr liratby s mind. lie wan I in the police force then, and was going off duty with tho relief at 9 o'clock, when work was -out in thai their arista nee was urgently wanted at the United Service Hole!, in Queen street. They wenl olf al the double, a.ud on arrival found the street in front of the building tilled with a howling mob of soldiers, .-.ailors, men-o'-wars' men, and civilians, fighting madly among thenwelves. The front, if the hoiel hud been snia.slwd in, bodies, broken ghuvi, and vai'ioii'; missile~s were flying about, and, to make confusion worse confciundcd, the battle was merrilv proceeding in almost total <larkn?ss. " The wugeaut-major formed us up." said Mr Bralby. his fitco lighting up at the. remembrance of it, "and then we got the order. 'Draw batons and charge!' \Ve charged all right, but it was hard to know what we were doing in the blacktiftiS. The. plan \w adopted was io feel tor a man in front of its, grab him, and if he didn't have a. policeman's coat, on, hit liiui 1 We broke lip that- row. We took ;t number of prisoners, and one of our fellows got an eye knocked out. They were rough times then, 1 can iell you. The military had pickets out aJl.alwut the town, as well as the police, to preserve order." And tiieri .Mr liratby threw a side-light on (he journalism of the cavlv sixties. When a .voting, inexperienced policeman, lie was told oil' lo do orderly duly in the Chainbsr of the Provincial t'ouncil. and prepared hintfolf to waleli v/ilh some interest tho proceedings of that august body, Uc received a. surprise, however. In the first place, he discovered .hat. certa.it] honourable councillors, when in hcatotl argument, v.ere not at all particular about the lam gtiage iJioy madfl use of. "On the day I was there," the ex-gaoler went on, "it, particularly warm argument look place, and the lungungo they used towards each other would not be credited. I thought to myself: 'Phis it; the rummiest shop ovov I was in. Xexl morning, a beautiful Bummer's morning, 1 was up earlv, waiting on (lie iwjier, and promißitig myself a treat in reading the account of this lurid row T bad witnessed. When f got the paper J . could searcsly believe my eve?. Tnsk'iul of the language 1 had heard, from the language primed you would liuve thought a. I | lot of gentlemen al college had been speaking. It was what, they should have said, t and all very appropriate, but it was not what I heard."