POPULAR POLICE OFFICER.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XII, Issue 244, 28 September 1922, Page 7

POPULAR POLICE OFFICER.

SUPERINTENDENT MeGRATH <S RETIREMENT. A LIFE FULL OF INCIDENT. Superintendent McGrath, who retires from the Police Department on the 15th of next month is well and favourably known in the Hawke’s Bay district. He joined the armed constabulary at Wellington on June 6th, 1878, and was transferred to Taupo a few months later. When the Te Whiti native trouble broke out in Taranaki he was one of a detachment sent there from the Taupo district, and t ho took part in the “bloodless victory” of 'Parihaka. Ho was one of the party that entered the pa and arrested the two chiefs. Te Whiti and Tohu, and also Hiroki (who had long been wanted for murder - ). This native was convicted and hanged. Mr McGrath commenced civil police duties in Wellington in 1882. and was transferred to the dectcetive branch of the service in 1884. He remained there until transferred to Auckland in 1887. He went to Dunedin in 1889, and after ten ycasr\ service there returned to Wellington as chief detective in 1899. He was promoted to the rank of sub-inspector m 1909, and transferred to Christchurch. His appointment as inspector came in 1913, and he Was transferred to Auckland. Two years later he took charge of the Hawke’s Bay district. He was promoted to superintendent in 1919, when, he again returned to Dunedin to take charge of the Otago and Southland districts. The most notable case which Mr l McGrath was engaged in as a detective was the Minnie Dean murder case, in which the woman was hanged for baby farming at Winton in 1895, At the trial, the presiding Justice congratulated the police on the way in which the case had been presented to the court, and in response to the solemn question as to whether she had anything to say why the setence of death should not be passed upon her, the prisoner, simply replied, ‘ ‘ No, except that 1 wish to thank Detective McGrath for the kindness and fairness with which he has treated me.” Only one other woman has suffered the extreme rigour of the law in New Zealand, and that was some years before this trial.