Islanders Surprise N.Z. Chief Detective

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29389, 16 December 1960, Page 16

Islanders Surprise N.Z. Chief Detective

Two young Pacific Islanders, from Rarotonga and Western Samoa, who were allowed to attend an advanced course for potential detectives “just to see how well they could' keep up with it,” have given the head of the Criminal Investigation Branch, Detective-Chief Superintendent F. N. Aplin, about the biggest surprise of his 39 years in the Police Force. With hardly any experience behind them, the men not only kept up with the course—about the toughest and most comprehensive of its kind in the world —but took the examination, scoring more than 50 per cent- in each of the two parts, and failing by fewer than 10 marks.

“I don’t think I’ve been so surprised in my life,” skid Mr Aplin. “The course covered fully every category of crime, from murder to Calcutta sweeps, the exact procedures for investigation, arrests, interrogation, presentation of evidence, and police law. All the other candidates had had at least two years and a half on C. 1.8. work, with regular in-service training each week. Had these two boys got 25 per cent., I would have said they’d done extremely well.” The two who astonished the C.IB and course inspectors at the Police Training School, Trentham. are Tangatanekeaere Tangatanekeaere, of Rarotonga, and Temporary Constable Nikoloa Masoe, of Apia, Western Samoa.

Tangatanekeaere, who is only 19. came to New Zealand as an inexperienced cadet at the beginning of the year for basic training. The first hint of his extraordinary ability came in March, when he took the examination at the end of a three-month course at Trentham. Competing against men two and three years older.

he came nineteenth out of 90. His marks were 1704 out of 2000. For the next six months he was given the chance to learn what he could of the practical side of police duties through his own observations. A spell of watchhouse duties at the Wellington Central Police Station was followed by a few weeks with the court orderly, with the C. 1.8. and the fingerprint section, and in patrol cars. With this brief introduction to police work, Tangatanekeaere returned to the Police Training School to study alongside men eight to 10 years his senior and with at least three years’ police experience. He will fly back to Rarotonga in the middle of this month, in the words of Mr Aplin, “a very well trained boy.” While the course was a big undertaking for Temporary Constable Nikola Masoe, he had the advantage of five years in the police Nikoloa originally came to New Zealand as a carpenter, but later, through Mr Aplin, was accepted for the Samoan Police in 1955. After two years in the criminal inquiry branch at Apia, he was Invited to spend four years in the Criminal Registration Bureau, or fingerprint section, of the C. 1.8. in WellingtonWorking from Wellington, Nikoloa has already formed the nucleus of a fingerprint branch in Western Samoa police headquarters, and he will finish his job of establishing this section when he returns to Apia in a year’s time.

According to Mr Aplin, his performance in cases involving fingerprint identification is as outstanding as his achievement in the detective qualification course. “He’s worked on several cases recently and come up with the right answers practically every time,” he said. “It seems he can’t go wrong.”