Other formats

    TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Wellington Provincial District]

Police Department

Police Department.

The Wellington Police District includes the greater part of the Wellington Provincial Disitrict the portion excluded being situated to the north of the Borough of Fielding. The Provincial District of Marlborough, in the South Island, page 343 forms the other part of the district. The Central Police Station is situated in Lambton Quay, Wellington, in close proximity to the Supreme and Magistrates' Courts, and there is a station in Buckle Street, at the top of Tory Street, known as Mount Cook station. The district is under the supervision of Inspector Pender, who has a force of eighty-three policemen, including sergeants and detectives, who are located in Wellington and in the various towns of the district.

Mr. Peter Pender, Inspector of Police for the District of Wellington, was born in Wexford, Ireland, where he was educated. After a short time, in which he was engaged in farming, he joined the Royal Irish Constabulary as a boy, and soon after was sent on a special mission to England and Wales. Not long after his return he was promoted to the position of sergeant, and took up his duties, serving in some of the disturbed districts at the time of the Smith-O'Brien troubles. In 1854 Mr. Pender joined the Mounted Staff Corps (as a volunteer), which numbered sixty men, and was known as Lord Raglan's. After drilling at Knightsbridge, London, the company was sent to the Crimea. Mr. Pender was present at the several attacks on, and at the taking of, Sebastopol, and afterwards at the Battle of Tchenere. Subsequently he went with the first Royal Dragoons, who were acting with the French, to the interior of the Crimea on a reconnoitering expedition. On his return he wintered at Seutari, Constantinople. After this Mr. Pender joined Colonel Grant in the Interior of Turkey-in-Asia to assist in organising the Turkish Contingent Cavalry. Returning to Constantinople, he went back to Britain, and rejoined the Irish Constabulary. In 1856 Inspector Pender came out to the colonies, landing in Melbourne, and after a few months on the Ovens Goldfield, he joined the Victorian police as a constable. He served with O'Hara Burke, who afterwards became a great explorer in Central Australia. In the Kerry Country, on the borders of New South Wales, he served for over five Mr. Peter Pender years, and in 1862, with three others, volunteered to assist in organising the police force in Canterbury. For thirty years after arrival in New Zealand, with the exception of a few years spent in Timaru, he was stationed at Chtistchurch. In 1864 he was promoted to the position of Inspector of Police. Inspector Pender was transferred to Wellington in 1892. Three years later he was sent on a special mission to England, in connection with the Harper case. Mr. Pender was married in 1864 in Christchurch to Miss O'Hara, who died in 1891, leaving two sons and four daughters. The elder son is employed on the railway, the younger attends St. Patrick's College, and the daughters are at home. Inspector Pender is a recipient of the Crimean medal and clasp for Sebastopol, the Turkish medal, and the New Zealand long-service medal.