DEATH OF A NOTED CRIMINAL.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 705, 4 September 1885, Page 2 (Supplement)

DEATH OF A NOTED CRIMINAL.

The news of the death of Henry Garrett will be of interest to those who remember the records of crime in Australia and New Zealand. He died Wednesday night, aged 72, of decay of the system. Tile career of a man who has spent fifty Christmases in gaol was necessarily a strange one ; and though a great criminal, there were some points in Garrett’s character which were not unamiable or altogether bad. It is believed that he was first driven to evil courses fry domestic trouble, and that he began by committing petty offence?. His first long sentence was passed in Birmingham in the year 1842, when he was condemned to 10 years’ transportation, and sent to Norfolk Island. In 1855 he committed a most daring bank robbery in Ballarat. The robbery was done in broad daylight. Garrett posted a notice on the bank door that it would be closed for an hour, and then entering the building presented a revolver at the heads of the officials. He thus managed to take about £6OOO, and escaped with it to London. He was followed thither by a detective from Australia and captured. The detective saw him in the street, and, not being sure of his man, gave a “ cooey.” At this, Garrett, to whom the sound was familiar, turned round sharply, and the detective, being certain that he was the person sought, took him into custody. On being taken out to Australia he was tried, and received a sentence of 10 years. He was present when Mr Price, at one time Superintendent of the convict establishments in Australia, was murdered by the prisoners. On the breaking out of the diggings, Garrett came over to New Zealand, and distinguished himself by sticking up and tyiug to trees seventeen men on the road between Dunedin and Gabriel’s Gully. Among the victims was Father Moreau, a French priest, whose memory is held in reverence both in Otago and in this district. When he had the seventeen tied up and their pockets emptied, like a gentle thief as he was, he made tea for them, and filled and lighted the pipes of such as smoked, and rbde away, ordering them not to move for two hours. It is stated that there are men now in Wellington who made his acquaintance on that occasion, and among them possibly a member of Parliament. He seldom, however, long enjoyed the fruits of his industry, and in May, 1862, he was sentenced to eight years’ penal servitude. This sentence he cannot have served to the end, as in 1868 he got one year for being found with housebreaking tools in his possession, and not long afterwards twenty years for breaking into a shop and stealing valuable goods. He was released iu 1882 by special permission, and for a short while devoted himself to literature. He contributed several biographies of gentlemen in his own way of business in weekly parts to a society journal in Christchurch. The name he wrote under was “Clodhopper,” and among the lives werethose of Silas Eli, Frederick Plummer, Robert Butler, and several other practiof eminence. They are said to have been exceedingly well done, showing great knowledge of character, and a curious and accurate acquaintance with facts. He also began a life of himself, which, unfortunately for literature, was interrupted. He was arrested in November, 1882, for being found in a wholesale warehouse with about 40 or 50 skeleton keys in his possession, and received a sentence of seven years, from which he was released by death Wednesday n’ght at 12 o’clock. Garrett sometime? called himself Rouse, which the Wellington Gaol authorities believe to have been his. real name. Through all bis career of crime, it is not recorded against him that he once shed human blood, and, like some of the highwayman of old, he never injured or robbed a woman. He was a man who had from his secluded life read much, and yet at the same time he had mixed and conversed with men sprung from all positions and of the most curious experiences. His memory was good, and he had a vast fund of information. His name was a household word at Pentridge, where he was regarded as a high legal authority. He had studied science as well as law, and was a warm disciple of Mr Darwin, being fully convinced that his principles were, fullyproved. He was not sound in his religious views, and it is stated he had no belief in. God or devil. Shortly before his death, however, there were signs that this was not altogether the case. While in Dunedin and other gaols, Garrett was a most turbulent prisoner. At one time he threatened the life of a gaoler, and was kept in solitary confinement for three years. In Wellington, However, his conduct has been quite different, and for Mr Garvey, the Governor of the Gaol, he would do anything. Mr Garvey says he could have trusted Garrett at any time to go a message outside the prison with the . certainty that he would return at the appointed hour. He was a capital, industrious workman, and while he was at Mount cook was found exceedingly useful, doing, while in health the work of three ordinary men. Certain work in connection with the laying of rails for the gaol tramways he did particularly well, saving a good deal of money to the department. To common thieves he had a BtroDg objection,, and would never associate with them, holding them in high contempt. Whenever any of those belonging to the humbler branches of his business went to him for advice he sent them away. With all the prison officials in Wellington he was perfectly, well behaved, and he also showed himself amenable to discipline, there never beiug a complaint aaginst him. On the 10th of last July, Garrett was taken ill, and Mr Garvey, seeing that he required special treatment, recommended his removal from Mount Cook to the Terrace Gaol, where there is a hospital. Mr J. S. M. Thomson, the Visiting Justice, accordingly ordered his removal, and he has been there ever since. Ttie old man has been treated kindly in his last illness, and as an instance of this Dr Johnson only Wedu< aday afternoon sent him a bottle of wine from his own cellar’. Everything, also, that could be done has been done by the gaoler, warders, and the other prisoners. In cold weather he has always been weak for the last eighteen months, but in fine weather he has always worked. The Ven. Archdeacon Stock has been moat kind and attentive to Garrett, who was grateful and attached to

Mm, though the latter never would take part on religious sub ects. Wednesday night Garrett was evidently very ill. He was in^bed, and about 7 o_clock he turned to the wall, and moaned * My Gou . my God . Mr Garvey immediately sent for Archdeacon Stock who hurried to the gaol. Though Garrett listened to the Archdeacon with respect, he asked him not to talk of religious matters, as it harassed him. Atcer that he sank fast, and closed his strange and turbulent life just at midnight. _