"INSIDE" POLICE STORIES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17730, 15 September 1919, Page 3

"INSIDE" POLICE STORIES

REMINISCENCES OF SUPERINTENDENT KIELY. It is a journalistic tradition that every mail in the street has a "story" in him i'f the journalist is only sufficiently dexterous at his trade to find and press tho mental button tint will release tho material which goes to the making of human documents. But it is rarely (says tho. Auckland Star) that a pressman alights on such treasure trove :n tho way of copy as Police Superintendent Kiely, who, out of his 40 odd years of pollco experience, can supply an unlimited fund of stories, and has tho 'gift of telling them well. A MAN WITH A GUN. Whilo on the subject of murderers ho had tapped on tho shoulder ■ the superintendent recalled that ono of his early experiences as a constable, 40 years ago, was participating in tho search for a .Maori who had killed the chief of his pa, a rangatira named Ropoma. '! ho search party of police and others were out all day on the s<tarch in wild I'icton country, adjacent to tho native pa, on tho watch for the suspected man's return to his whare. Tho search had been fruitless when nightfall came, and as the s-uspected Maori was reported to be carrying a jr Un none of tho party felt any great desire to keep traversing tho uncultivated country by night, with the feeling that they would most certainly bo spotted bv tho hunted man, whilo he enjoyed the advantage of bountiful cover. So it was generally decided to givo tho job up for the night. "I said I would wait a while longer," narrated Mr Kiely, "and a boy who ha'd attached himself to tho party, just a youngster of 12 years, bogged to bo allowed to stay with me. So tho .boy and I lay down in the darkness watching a crossroad heading to tho pa, and I tell you in the stillness of tho night, with the stirring of tho trees and shrubs in tho breeze, tho strain of listening and peering through the darkness, and the thoughts of holding up a nervous man with a gun, it was an eerio job. Nothing happened, and I got thinkinsr of possible hiding-places, when it occurred to me that a hut on a clearing some little distance away, a property owned by Colonel Chavtor's father, would probably have

tempted tho Nativo to its cover. So off wo crawled to tho clearing. The shed at tho time was filled to the eaves with hay, and leaving tho lad some distance off I crawled to tho doorway, with listening pauses to trv to detect any sound of movement. I irot into tho shed, and well inside the doorway, when I heard a Tustlinsr deep down in tho hay. I started to pull tho hay out, feeling in the direction of whero the sound was. with vivid thoughts about the gun, and suddenly I felt a man's hand clispcd round a weapon. * G-ad, it's tho gun,' thoucrht I. and I closed on it. to discover immediately afterwards, when I rrot the Maori out. that it was no gun at all. but a great club the Native had taken to hod with him. It was a very frightened Maori and a proud nair of cantors, the boy -ind I. thnt marched to the lock-up. The Native afterwards paid the extreme nonaltv of his crime. m TIIB TWITTERING SPARROWS. "There is another of the many instances of moital vagaries of fellows in the d.t.'s I remember, which struck me as very funny at tho lime,'' continued tho superintendent, "for after all it is the glimpses of the humorous side of things that one remembers longest. I was in Christchurch a few years ago, when a complaint came from Linwood that there was a man in tho street there with a revolver, acting in a queer way. I sent a : oliceman out, and he brought the man and the revolver to the station. The constable said: ' I can't find anything wrong with the man.' I went in and said to tho ' man: 'What was the matter with you this morning?' 'Nothing,' says he. 'Well, what were you doing with the revolver out at LinvoodV 'I bought it,' he replied. 'What caused you to buy it?' I queried. 'Oh, I went for a walk early, before break-*] fast, and I met a lot of sparrows along the road: They got sticking out their tongues at me, making faces, and talking about me, so I went back to town and bought the revolver that I might settle tho little devils.' OF COURSE, HIS WAS SAFE. "Another time I was just leaving the station in Christchurch ono morning, when a well-dressed young fellow rushed in, his eyes jumping out of his head with excitement, but a self-satisfied smile on his face.

' . v gad, that was a narrow escape!' he says, as he jumps in the doorway. ' Yes ' sayo I. ' What?' ' Why, that motor car,' he says. Didn't you see it whizz past me? And the beggar followed me right un on the footpath. Another inch and he'd "havo been over me. But I think I'll be safe here. We saw that he was kept safe " A SEEKER OF REWARDS. Tho Superintendent switched off to an experience of another kind. "I was only a ypung fellow in the police in Blenheim when there was a standing reward of a couple of hundred poupds offered to any man who would supply evidence against any person setting fire to a building. A young Jew boy camo to me at the police station one night, and said, 'Do you want to earn £100? I said I'd like to hear about it You can earn it quite easily,' savs he. "if you chiD in.' 'What way?' I asked. 'You know the insurance companies are ofTerin" £200 for anybody caught setting fire to a building. 11l find a man to fire a building, and have him there and everything in readiness and you can catch Hm at tho job. We'll share the reward.' I says, 'You baliv scoundrel, get out of here,' and I kicked him out of the place. After thai li» left with volunteers for the Parihaka war but they threw him out later. He drifted to Auckland, and was in the gaol for theft when I camo across him again. When Winiata- was about to he hanged ho thought it a fine opportunity, and volunteered for - and was New Zealand's expert hangman for many years. PACKED OFF "TO THE OTHER SIDE." An instance of a case in which a member of the force succumbed to temptation was included m the superintendent's account of tne two occasions on which he had been beyond tho dominion during his term of service. ' The first time," he said, "was a trip on the Hinemoa to the Chathams w;H> r V *"- Mr Dcighton ' trouble vtith the Morions over payment of taxes I was m charge of a party of police and artillerymen, under Commissioner Gudgeon that went down. Wo had a picnic and brought back a couple of prisoners to Mount Lden GaoL The other timo I was chosen to tako charge oi an escorting party to brinnsome prisoners from Sydney, including the abscondmg Detective Kirbv. The latter had got away from New Zealand in a pack--110 was wanted in connection wth getting money from a business man ' i This man had been suspected of an illegal practice, and Kirbv went to him with a blue paper, but told him- he thought tho thing could bo squared fo? £100. Eventually at different times Kirbv got a considerable amount of money out of the man. who at length cleared out. He however, drifted back to New Zealand and a lawyer got wind of the business, with the result that Ku-bv was taxed with the busr ness and arrested. During the time he was on remand he was packed up J n a case and sent away to Australia. Ho was brough back and prosecuted, and, I think, got t«- 0 years. When lie got out ho was goin- to lecture through New Zealand on gaol "life He first appeared as a lccturer at Invorcari gill, but not a. dozen people attended and he chucked it up. Apparently people weren t interested in gaol life." 1