SERGEANT DALE

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 23 August 1924, Page 7

SERGEANT DALE

RETIRING FROM POLICE FORCE. A LONG AND EVENTFUL CAREER. Sergeant Dale, who has been in ehaige of the. Stratford Police Station lor the past ten years, leaves on Monday next to take up his residence m .New Plymouth, having severed connection with the Police Force, exempt for "serving a hit their three months’ retiring holiday leave. On the completion ot this three months iie will bo retired from the Force. Sergeant Dale joined the Armed Constabulary at Raliotu on September > Ibbl. and he was in all the operations in the vicinity in those stirring •times. He was one of the hundred selected men who went into. Parihaka under the Minister of Defence, Air John Bryce. He did duty over several Maori chiefs who were then arrested, including ..tuiroki, who was subsequent!\ uanged for murder. Afterwards the Sergeant was transferred with- a force of 200 Constabulary .to Kawhia, but soon afterwards a start was made with the disbanding of the Constabulary, and he decided to join the civil police, which lie did in 18d3, and he was sent co the North Dunecht« station, where he remained for five years under one of che ablest sergeants in the Force—the late Sergeant O’Neill. After twelve montns at Lawrence, as second mounted man, he went to ivaitangata, about the end of the loca-l strike there. After four years he was sent to Dunedin, acting as plain cloches constable for the south end of the city. The Dunedin Exhibition was on 'at the time, and the police had a strenuous time. The next shift, was to take charge or a. new station at Sfc. Clair, a. Dunedin seaside resort, which involved a good deal of work because of the number of young childien on the beach during the school holidays. This part- of Dunedin, the sergeant said, nad changed out of all recognition since the days when lie was in charge there. The next post was at Cromwell, a. heavy district to work, the district being close on 100 miles across, and mountainous. His stay of live years in this station enabled him to see the start and collapse of the dredging boom in the district. He was kept busy in attending to his duties ns assistant- to they mining registrar, as. owing to- the dredging being more or less a failure, the Alining Court was made a good deal of use of. Throe or four years was next spent at Alexandra South, about eight miles from Cromwell, another dredging locality. After another four years’ service on this station, came promotion to . the rank of sergeant. and a transfer i.o sectional’duty in Wellington. After three years Sergeant Dale ivas promoted to the l , charge of the Newmarket station, which, being suburban to Auckland, was a busy station. The next (and last) shift was to Stratford, whore Sergeant Dale arrived in 191,4.

In th,p. course of Ins ten veairs in Stratford, Sergeant Dale has ,dealt with a great many crimes, hut mostly of a minor nature. The only one of an outstanding nature that lie could call to mind was the conviction cf a man some years ago for wilfully setting fire to premises in Broadway. “I am proud,” said the Sergeant, “of the fact that I am leaving the. Force after 43 years’ service,,and that during the whole of that time there has been no complaint regarding me: — I have never been guilty of a breach of discipline, and T have never had •’iiv official punishment.”—Stratford Post.