POLICE PROMOTIONS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLVIII, Issue 4, 24 July 1912, Page 16

POLICE PROMOTIONS.

TWO AUCKLANDERS GO UP. CHIEF DETECTIVE MARSACK, of Auckland, has been promoted to the rank of sub-inspector, and appointed to the Palmerston North station, and Detective-Sergeant McMahon, of the Auckland office, has been appointed to succeed Mr. Marsack as Chief Detective, From Paris to Palmerston North denotes baldly the geographical history of Mr. Marsaek’s progress, but the journey has been made, not as the crow flies, but with many divagations which have brought him into touch with most of the big places and strange peoples of the earth. Born and educated at Paris, he naturally speaks French with the envied accent of the gay city, and he started an adventurous career early, for he was behind the walls during the German siege at his native city, and saw the smoke of the Prussian guns. At sixteen he went to sea, and began to see life in earnest. He visited many portions of the globe, but meanwhile found time to study navigation, gaining a chief officer’s certificate. For two years he was on H.M.s. Worcester when that old vessel wr/s mode a nautical college, and one of 7-is contemporaries was Admiral Togo. Thereafter he obtained a commission in the Royal Naval Reserve. He. again smelt the smoke of battle when on a vessel up the reaches of one of the Burmese rivers in the course of an engagement against the wild Indian dacorts. New Zealand attracted him and he ran the gamut of colonial life—farming, bush-felling and fishing. Eventually he joined the armed constabulary, ami at last he settled down to an occupation which combined Tegular prospects of advancement with the incidental excitements beloved of an adventurous spirit. Twenty-four years ago he was transferred to the detetive department at Christchurch, and by way of Oamaru and Napier he came to Auckland. which city he reached eight years ago. Probably the biggest and most congenial case of his detective career was the notorious casting away of the yacht Ariadane. in IflOl, for which the captain suffered imprisonment, though the owner eventually, after long resistance by the underwriters, obtained insurance. Mr. McMahon has been in the service for twenty-two years. Born in Dunedin, he went early in life to the West Coast, where he followed the more or less golden fortunes of the miner. Incidentally he achieved local fame Ip. athletic-, as a wrestler and long distance runner. In the latter capacity he was never beaten, off the mark, on the track. At the age of 25 he joined the Permanent Artillery in Wellington, and was thence drafted into the street force of the constabulary. He was almost at onee given a chance in the plain clothes department, and he made hi- mark in the famous Scott murder case, of Waikumete. Both appointments date from Monday last, and Mr. Marsack will probably leave for Palmerston North on Tuesday. Mr. McMahon has already taken office.