Other formats

    TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Nelson, Marlborough & Westland Provincial Districts]

Police Department

Police Department.

The Marlborough Police District embraces nearly the whole of the province. It terminates at Havelock in the north and Clarence river in the south, and includes the whole of the Polorus and Queen Charlotte Sounds. The sergeant-major in charge has a staff of four constables with him in Blenheim, one of whom is a mounted constable and inspector of factories, weights and measures, etc. There are two constables at Picton, one of whom acts as gaoler; there is one constable at Havelock, and a district constable at Cullensville. The district is law abiding and orderly, and furnishes very few Supreme Court cases of a serious nature.

Sergeant-Major William Thomas Mason, the Officer-in-Charge, took up his duties on the 19th of April, 1899, when he succeeded Sub-Inspector Kiley, transferred to Dunedin. Sergeant-Major Mason was born at Chatham, England, in 1845, and when only a youth came out to New Zealand, and joined the constabulary at Wanganui in 1868. He served in the West Coast campaign under Colonel Whitmore in 1868–9, and was present at various actions, including those of Okotuku and Nukumaru, and served on the east coast at Tauranga and elsewhere under Colonel Fraser. Mr. Mason was promoted to the rank of sergeant-major in 1876, and is not only one of the oldest but one of the most respected officers in the service. He has been stationed in Tauranga, Opotiki, Auckland, Lyttelton, Christ-church, Timaru, and Wellington, and has the New Zealand war and long service medals.