“HONOR TO WHOM HONOR.”

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1372, 16 October 1886, Page 3

“HONOR TO WHOM HONOR.”

The news of the arrest of Caffrey and Penn, the wretches who so foully murdered an unoffending settler on the Great Barrier Island a few months ago, has been hailed with satisfaction throughout the colony. Having committed the crime of taking the life of a fellow-creature under circumstances of great atrocity, they escaped to sea in a cutter called the Sovereign of the Seas, and are said to have been flying the piratical emblem, the black flag, as a sort of bravado. The cutter was well found in provisions, and seems to have been a smart sailer. Her rascally crew got a good start, and the steamer despatched in chase failed to overhaul her, and, as despite the sharp look-out kept up at sea and all around the coasts of New Zealand and the neighbouring colonies, months elapsed without tidings of the fugitives, there was every reason to fear that they had made good their escape. It was supposed, indeed, that they had made the coast of South America, and found an asylum in Mexico or some other distant land, and nobody expected that they would have been heard of again. But Nemesis was at their heels; for although they did indeed attempt to reach the South American coast they encountered a series of severe gales, and

finding it impossible to keep their endtse, had to make for the coast of Queensland. The vessel was leaking badly, and Caffrey and Penn with the 1 woman, whom they had taken to sea | with them fit is said against her will), 1 escaped to shore somewhere north of the Macquarrie river. Then the party appears to have separated ; Penn and the woman, by some means, making their way to within 300 miles of Sydney, and Caffrey remaining in Queensland. The story of his clever arrest by the police, and of the subsequent arrest of Penn and his paramour, Lizzie Graham, have been told through the cable, and by this time the two scoundrels are probably on their way to New Zealand to answer for the dastardly offence which they committed with apparent impunity on the 18th June. In view of the number of crimes of violence which have been recently perpetrated, it is very satisfactoiy, indeed, to find that justice has, in this instance, been able to overtake the offenders, for nothing has so salutary an effect in checking outrage? of this sort as the almost certainly of detection and punishment. Very great credit attaches to the police of this and the neighboring colonies for the skill and patience with which they have tracked down the murderers ; and, indeed, it is not too much to say that the police and detective force of Australia and New Zealand compares very favorably in intelligence, skill, and energy with any similar force in any part of the world. In saying this we are only giving honor where honor is due, and if, as is proverbial, “the policeman’s lot is not a happy one” always, or, perhaps, often, the more reason why its many drawbacks should be to some extent compensated by a due recognition ot the excellent services which he renders to society.