A GLIMPSE OF EARLY DAYS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 2748, 21 June 1924, Page 1

A GLIMPSE OF EARLY DAYS.

THE LATE INSPECTOR KIELY. Tlit' romapco of early colonial life, of (he eager quest for gold when (he hire of Hie yellow metal was drawing men to New Zealand from the Homelands, ; md of Hie stirring ineitlenfs of police duties in Hie pioneering days, are written largely aeross Hie story of Hie life of exSuperiiitendent Kiely, whose death oeeniTed in Auckland, recently, re- ■ ports the Observer. Arriving in New Zealand as a youth of 17 or 18 years of age, Nicholas Kiely made straight for the West Coast diggings, then in the lteydey of prosperity and glamour. While Mr Kiely grew rich in experiences' in and about Hokitika, he did not grow rich in pocket, and after being there about a couple of years he shook the black sand of Revcll Street off his feet, and struck out for pastures new, coming to a ball in Marlborough. Up to this lime, although an lri.-diman, he had never had any intention of .joining the police force, but when lie had been in .Marlborough a few months lie was "inveigled into joining the force bv old inspector Emerson. He was at me for over a week liefore 1 succumbed, and Hie temptation that eventually brought me into the force was a beautiful horse which went with I lie job. 1 could not resist it, and from that day to this I've been a policeman/' Consable Kick's lirst experience of the -crimes par! of a policeman’s varied lot, which came sunn after was one. Pi be remembered. It fell jo bis

dutv in arrest a man on a charge of murder. He was in a drunken sleep till a beer barrel m a hotel when In* was arrested. Tie was duly tried, convicted, sentenced lo death raid executed in the Pieton gaol. The law did not-take its course without an unusual incident. The sheriff. Air Cyrus Coulter, had considerable difficulty in finding an executioner. "Two days bad elapsed before one could be got/’ said Mr Kiely, in relating the story, ‘‘and then one morning at five o'clock, I was awakened bv a messenger Rearing tlie information that a. hangman was at the door in a train 1 bad to go round and warn the gaoler, the magistrate, and a minister to go to the gaol at once, as the execution was about to take.place. As this was .Mr Kiely s first experience of the kind, it had almost a terrorising effect on him. ‘“T shall never forget," he said, "Hie ealhmsncss of the hangman, who was going over his rope, taking out tho kinks and fixing it up. The old gaoler said to him, ‘For goodness sake lie careful and don t have any hitch in the matter/ The hangman looked al him and said, ‘T think the hest tiling would lie for me to test the rope with yon first; you re .just about his weight and could gi\e if a real good test!" The hangman’* laM words to the prisoner as he pulled Iho cap over the doomed man’s head were also recalled by Air Keily. Tic said: “Well, good-bye, old fellow; it's a road we all will have to no and I muv lie following yon tomorrow.” After the execution the hangman made a little speech from (lie scaffold to-the assembled officials. “If there has been any hdih about this malter/’ lm said. ‘.I ani searedv responsible for it. I , a,Tied out'the work to the best of my ability. This is the fird time I have ever hanged a white man in my life, but I have bung dozens of coloured men before breakfast in mv time.” Air Keily added: “That was my ties! acquaintance with lorn Long, the hangman, who became well-known in New Zealand m after yea rs.”