RESCUING A PRISONER.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20905, 20 December 1929, Page 14

RESCUING A PRISONER.

A PORT CHALMERS REMINISCENCE. _ \ esterday, at Port Chalmers, a Daily fr 1 (1 n l 1 | Ca „ was passing the Town fr . * where the children were singing at h lle ‘ r school break-up ceremony. An old-timer,’' who had halted to listen to the singing, remarked to the reporter that he could remember when he was one of the happy children at the school breakup,B at Port Chalmers. He attended a school farther up the street. The big school was not built then. As a matter of fact there was a gaol then on the site the school now occupies. Part of that prison consisted of a number of wooden cells very similar to the present street telephone boxes. One evening two or three sailors from a man-o’-war were locked up for drunkenness. Later in the evening several other man-o’-warsmen decided to rescue their shipmates from prison Accordingly, they went up to the 8“°L aB 3 u . let [ y , aa could, and tapped on the detached .cells for the purpose of locating their friends. There was no rea* J en Kth they heard someone breathing heavily inside one of the cells. . urther taps outside brought no answering signal. The rescuers, however, were primed to action. They had no tools with which to force open the locked door, so they decided to remove the cell as well as its occupant. Carefully pushing it over until it rested on its side on the ground, they started to roll the cell downhill towards tne street. They soon lost control of it, and it kept on rolling until it was brought up in an alleyway between two The rescuers followed and ,at *be ce H was so tightly jammed m the alleyway that they could not move it, and, to make matters worse, the door Was underneath. Nevertheless, they were encouraged to persevere, for they now distinctly beard seafaring phrases being freely used inside the cell. It was a critical predicament, for silence .was essential, ana the hotels would be closing in another five or 13 minutes. Ihe rescuers decided to go to the nearest and ascertain whether any sailors were there to lend a hand. They went, and when they returned later there was a little crowd of people in and about the alleyway. A policeman ordered the rescuers to stand back, and for a moment they wavered. Eventually, by means of a post from a nearby fence, the lammed cell was rolled over and the constable had the key to open it. When the prisoner emerged, the naval rescue party did not recognise him—it was Charlie, the local bellman.