LONG POLICE SERVICE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 59, 10 March 1932, Page 10

LONG POLICE SERVICE.

CHIEF DETECTIVE HAMMOND. RETIREMENT IMMINENT. FAMOUS CASES RECALLED. Having completed just over 37 years' service in the New Zealand police force, Chief Detective Alfred Hammond, for years a distinct personality in the force, has resigned, and he will retire as from the middle of August. With the exception of a few months spent at Christchurch, Mr. Hammond has performed his duties exclusively in Wellington and Auckland. By heing attached to the local detective office for 20 yeans, he has created a record. He goes on extended leave on March 31. Born at Dunedin, Mr. Hammond, in 1894, joined the permanent artillery in Wellington, and the next year he was transferred to the police force. Versatile, nimble and sagacious he proved one of the best all-round detectives in the Dominion. Adventure as Tramp. Mr. Hammond's first good "catch" was the result of a most unusual disguise on his part. It was known that an illicit whisky still was situated somewhere in the bush near Pahiatua. Inspector Pender selected the new and raw PC. Hammond as a likely one to discover the location of the still and, if possible, catch the offenders. The other man selected was Detective Cox. There were no trains in the Wairarapa in 1895, and eo the detective and the constable were each handed a complete swagger's outfit, tivA

instructed to go to Pahiatua. They were ] not to arrive there by. coach, as that would arouse suspicion. Both had to walk. Detective Cox walked from Woodville to Pahiatua, and Mr. Hammond, carrying his "bluey," walked from Eketahuna to Pahiatua. After hard work and long, weary walks looking for information, Mr. Hammond chummed up with some bushmen, and eventually learned that the still was eeven miles from Pahiatua, in the bush. Three men who ran the still were arrested 1 on May 20, and each was fined £100. Constable Hammond's reward was £10. For a short period Mr. Hammond was stationed on the Wellington wharves, where he achieved much success a'nd registered many important arrests, including that of two confidence men. He had more than fulfilled Inspector Pender's prophecy that he would turn out a good "sleuth." Arrests of Murderers. Mr. Hammond was associated with others in the investigations following the sensational murder of Mr. and Mrs. Jones, storekeepers, at Petone, in November of 1896. Stephen Bosher waß arrested some months later and hanged for the double murder the following April. Mr. Hammond was interested in the search for Frank Hawthorne, who went' missing at Silverstream in 1898 and was one of those who found his body, three months later, buried in the hills at Silverstream. A man named Frank Philpotts was later convicted for the murder and executed. In another famous murder case Mr. Hammond took a very prominent part. A contractor named Collinson was murdered at Riddiford's station, Te Awaite, in the Wairarapa. A notorious bushranger, Ellis, was suspected. He was known to be an expert bushman and it was thought that he was hiding in the bush. Mr. Hammond spent six weeks in the bush searching for him. Five months after the murder Detective Brdberg and Constable Wilcox arrested Ellis in the bush near Waipawa. He had been living and sleeping in a large, hollow rata tree which was lined with bullock skins. Ellis, who shot Collinson through the back for revenge, was sub

sequcntly put to death. Famous Cat Burglar. Cyril George Pegg, alias Enwright, tho famous "cat burglar" who carried off some remarkable and daring "jobs" yielding large swags in England, America, and Australia, once came into the clutches of Mr. Hammond. On the night of January 2, 1917, a big robbery was committed at the Royal Hotel, Victoria Street, four guests having their rooms ransacked and losing amongst them jewellery worth £100 and about tho same amount in cash. A Sydney boat had arrived that morning and Mr. Hammond decided to study the passenger list. He found that Pegg was a passenger from Sydney. The next day the e.s. Westralia was sailing for Sydney and only an hour or so before its departure, Mr. Hammond walked aboard and asked Pegg to "come along." AH the jewellery and most of the money were recovered. Pegg was the original "cat and after leaving these shores ho gained notoriety by his astounding climbing feats in San Francisco, Australia and England. It is not generally known that Mr. Hammond took a prominent part in the discovery of the fingerprint clues which led to the arrest of Dennis Gunn for the murder of the Ponsonby postmaster, Mr. Braithwaite, some years ago. He also once arrested Powelka, the notorious incendiarist, who, years later, staged such a mysterious escape from the Terrace Gaol, Wellington. Railway Station Burglary. In 1901, with Detective McLeod, Mr. Hammond arrested James Edward Wilson at the point of the revolver, at Wellington Heads, after Wilson had brutally assaulted Constable Glass and left him lying unconscious on the beach. In Sep- | tember, 1901, at Mjramar, Mr. Hammond arrested Prank King, an escapee from Point Halswell Prison. King resisted ! violently and almost broke Sir. Hammond's arm when he struck him with a : largo beef bone. Mr. Hammond won after a hard struggle, and he was suitably rewarded for both these captures. .. Some years ago a daring robbery was ' carried out in the office of the old rail-

way station, when the large safe was dynamited and hundreds of pounds —the wages of many railway employees— stolen from the safe. Mr. Hammond was summoned from his bed at two o'clock in the morning. In making a search of the locality near the Parncll railway bridge he found a sack with several papers which had been in the safe. He traced the sack, by certain initials on it, as coming from a boardinghouse near the Chelsea sugar works. The next day he arrested two men, and both were afterwards convicted. Most of the stolen money was recovered. If tailors depended upon Mr. Hammond's orders for blue uniforms, they would certainly be slack, as he has seldom worn the blue serge that distinguishes a "uniform man." Nearly all his work has been done in plain clothes. Had he accepted promotion when it came his way years ago, he would to-day have attained the rank of superintendent, but he preferred to remain in the criminal investigation branch. He liked the work and certainly showed that he had a flare for it. Hundreds of gambling dens — two-up, hazards, pakapoo and other schools where games of chance were played—liave been raided by him. Once he directed and staged a raid on a Darby Street two-up school which yielded 71 arrests. He is cbnsidered the greatest police authority in New Zealand on gambling and the Gaming Act. Fairness to Criminals. When Chief Detective Hammond ceases to carry his handcuffs in his hip pocket on March 31, many fellow members of the force and also the public will miss his cheerful personality from O'Rorke Street and the city. Possibly, even some of the "crooks" who have at times been worried by him, will also miss him. Relations between him and the "crook" were always amicable—a sort of armed neutrality, so to speak, in which both sides' were ostensibly "hail fellow well met:" He has always been fair to those whom he has arrested, always ready to give them good advice, and in Court to bring circumstances in favour of the prisoner before the magistrate. When he retires Mr. Hammond will still be looking for captures—not of. evildoers, but of fish in the Rotorua district, that is when he is not at his seaside bach. Later he intends to accompany Mrs. Hammond on a visit to England.