A CLEVER DETECTIVE

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2360, 16 January 1915, Page 8

A CLEVER DETECTIVE

PROMOTION OF SERGEANT CASSELLS A VALUABLE CAREER This week there was lost to 'Wellington the services of one of the smartest and most energetic detectives New Zealand lias known. Fortunately Sergeant Cussells lias not entirely parted company with the Polico Force; the road to promotion merely necessitates his transference from the plain clothes side of tho Servico to the uniform branch of the organisation. The detective side loses heavily by the transfer; the other side gains a capable man. Sergeant Cassells's friends farowelled him very heartily. It would not have surprised some had his natural enemies paid him a similar compliment. Many a law-breaker knows chivalry when he sees it, and most of them trusted Cassells implicitly. "Cassells only does his duty, and he gives a 'crook a fair spin," that was their way of looking at it. It was Detective Cassells's popularity among classes who usually keep detectives at a safe .distance that was one of his really valuable assets. People who took even passing interest in the large number of strike cases which ho worked up and carried through a year ago must, have been struck by the amount of information he brought out — information which was not gleaned firsthand by the police, and must have been obtained from men who voluntarily "peached." For a considerable portion of his career Sergeant Cassells was stationed at Mount Cook, Wellington, and it was there that he did much of the work which reflects so much credit upon him. He joined the Police Force in Wellington in 1894. Mount Cook Station was opened in that vear, and he was one of the first constables sent there. In those days the district was very rough, particularly in the vicinity of Haining and Frederick Streets.

A Rare Fight. ' There, only one constable went out on duty at a time, and the man on night beat could often look' forward to a crowded hour of excitement. Saturday night was almost certain to provide the representative of the law with something bordering on the sensational. Sergeant Cassells has reason to remember one particular Saturday night in the Chinese quarter soon after Tie joined the Foroe. A Chiraman. who was married to a white woman got homo at about midnight from a gambling den, and discovered a European man talking to hia partner. When the woman heard the Chinaman.coming in she pretended to resent the intrusion of the white man, and the outcome of these tactics was that the yellow man attacked his paler brother with an axe. However, the unarmed party was the bettor fighter, and after inflicting some damage on the axeman, he escaped. While the Chinaman had been wielding the axe he had also been calling loudly for help.. What followed can' be related best in the words of Sergeant Casscls, who told the story some little- timo ago to a few friends. "The Chinese of tho neighbourhood poured out to the rescue in large numbers. The constable on. the beat arrived on the l sceue just before tho Oriental reinforcements. Ho was wearing a greatcoat over his uniform, and, seeing him in the liouse, the reinforcements took him to be the White man who had caused the trouble. They attacked him forthwith, and one of them felled him with a frightful blow on the liead, a blow from a baton pulled off one of the fences. Tho constable's head was split down, and he was rendered hore de combat. Another constable and I happened along just in time to see this. The Chineso who had used tho wood so effectively bolted. I caught him, and he began to shout for help. This he got very quickly, and a battle royal commenced. Sticks and stones and bottles were flying in all directions. In the darkness tho Chinese did not know the other constable or mo because we wore iii plain clothes, and they went for us eyes out. Footballers and Jack Tars to the Rescue. "A huge orowd soon gathered, and 011 realising our desperate position Bomo of them (mostly footballers whom I knew) came to our assistance. A little later a party of man-o'-warsmen came up, and they too throw themselves into the melee. After about twenty minutes' hard fighting the Chinese retreated into their houses, and wo held our" prisoners. It wa6 with the greatest difficulty we got-them to Mount Cook, as the crowd were bent 011 attacking tliem, and we were almost powerless to prevent them. The prisoner I had was the object of the crowd's wrath, and many a blow with lots of force behind it was directed at him. Some got home, but as many missed and land-od on my countenance, and when we did arrive at Mount Cook it was a difficult matter to decide which was tho prisoner and which was the policeman. When we left the street the men-o'-warsmen rushed the Chinese houses, and did considerable damage. [t was getting on for two o'clock on the, Sunday morning before the locality cooled down. That Sunday it was possible to trace the blook-marks right Worn Mount Cook Station to the place where wo had the fight." The European who was the oause of the trouble got clean away for the time being, but Constable Cassells- located him in a bush camp at Silverstream two months later, and arrested him. The man was taken before the Court, and heavily fined. A rather nasty scar or two that Sergeant Cassells will carry with him till the end of his days were received in an exciting Taranaki Street encounter with a man who was wanted for having brutally assaulted his wife. The man was a big fellow, and was maddened with drink. He drew first blood with a hefty kick ovor the arresting officer's eye, and his last effort to get free was to take Cassell's little fingeir between his teeth and practically sever it. Finally this man with his Berlin ideas in fight ing was handcuffed and lumbered to the lock-up. 1

Bout with the Man of Death. • A while later, Constable Cassells was transferred to Wanganui, where an ex-citement-was rarer. But ho did find it necessary, "in the execution, of liis duty," to indulge'in one of those hand-to-hand affrays in which Irishmen aro said to revol and excell. "There chanced along to Wanganui a man who once filled the office of hangman, and having just received a cheque from the Government, tho execntionor got on the spree, and took chargo of the principal thoroughfare. Constable Cassells was unlucky enough to bo on duty at the time, and he attempted to arrest tho far-too-hilarious celebrant. "Como on— I'll give you something to do," was the Bpirit in which tho roysterer received the constable. A strenuous 6ot-to, lasting about a quarter of an hour, ended in°tlie cheque-breaker arriving at the State resting-house. After Wanganui Constable Cassells entered the detective cilice at Christohnrch. Ho spent four years there, including eighteen months' consecutive night duty planted in stables and behind hedges on the lookout for the horse fiend, who was jier : pet rating his vile outrages at tho time. In 1901 he was sent to Wellington, and hero he worked (and made his name) off and on until this week. His extraordinary knowledge of the criminal classes, his native astuteness, and his tireless persistency enabled him to accomplish an enormous amount' of work. \VI'"U ' th«. girotters were at work in .W'jHmßtott- wen or eight years a?o, torroriainz the community, it was De-

tectivo Cassolls who effected the arrest of several of the criminals and broko up tho gang. Taking a Desperate Gang, One of the pluckiest feats of this officer who lias frequently proved his courageousness was the sensational capture of a gang of armed robbers, whose operations in tho city had proved extremely expensivo to Wellington business men and wealthy householders. Business premises were entered, safes blown open and tho contents taken. Dwellings were broken into, and jowellerv and valuables stolen. The thieves were clever enough to escape the police for some time, and as they were known to be armed, and believed to he desperate, the position was looked upon as serious. Detective Cassells was among thoso searching for tho trail. He picked it up, and developed his cluo so well that ho was able to plan a capture. There were four in the gang, and to tako tho four together might have boen a very big undertaking. He knew the house they lived in, and he guessed that the four would not go homo in a body—that they would probably go singly or in twos. So, while they were out, .he and another member of tho force planted themselves in tho house, and awaited the arrival of the gang. One came, and as he enterod he was trapped and handcuffed. 'Another was arrested in the house, and two were found in a hotel and marched off to the cells. This coup resulted in thousands of pounds' worth of property being returned to the owners. It was a hazardous undertaking, and the pubTic applauded it at the time. Some of them, perhaps, have not forgotten it yet. A Big Compliment.

Though Sergeant Cassells haß so far in his 21 years' service managed to get through without having been incapacitated from duty for an hour he has had some narrow escapes. One dark night he was going up a lonely lane off Tory 'Street to arrest a man who was aware that the detective had been sent' for. As the detective passed an opening in a fence a heavy piece of timber, wielded by strong hands, whizzed down tho front of his face. The terrific blow had missed _by inches only. The_ encounter which ensued was exceedingly willing, but the arm of the law proved quite efficient, and the wanted person was duly brought to justice. Quite Tecentlv Sergeant Cassells, single-handed, arrested two of the most desperate criminals whom the New Zealand police have over had to deal with. These were an English, African, and Australian celebrity, and an American crook, who were wanted _ for having lured a man into a houso in the Mount Cook district, and doped and battered him and robbed him. A year ago the Crown Law Office paid | him the compliment of asking him to take up a large number of the striko cases which were pending at about that time. How he repaid the trust is now on record.