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JUDICIAL AND POLICE DEPARTMENTS
By Fitzroy
Queensland owes a great deal to its admirable Police Force, a statement
that holds good from the very earliest times to the present. In very
early days the duties of the police force–individually and collectively-were
frequently dangerous, unpleasant and strenuous. Nearly every unpleasant
and repulsive duty from fishing a dead body from the river, to arresting
an armed and dangerous criminal, fell to the lot of the police. If any
person were lost in waterless scrubs or in dangerous woods or droughts,
the police were promptly dispatched on the search, though such duties
frequently involved a good deal of inconvenience and discomfort. In a
sentence a constable, to be able to carry out his varied duties, had
to be something of an athlete, strong, and courageous and resourceful
with a fair education and much experience of bush life, as well as a
fair acquaintance with towns and their inhabitants.
Likewise, honest and sober.
The foregoing list of qualifications in a mere constable may seem overdrawn, but not a few possess them all–and more, so it is no wonder that they in time became sergeants, sub-inspectors, and Inspectors. Of course all did not reach such a high standard, and a few were discredit to an otherwise manly, trustworthy and competent body of men.
The Native Police, with white officers, were established in New South Wales early in the fifties, and detachments were gradually extended into what is now Queensland and were in the Central District a long ago as 1855, or even earlier. The duties of the Native Police were chiefly connected with the suppression of outrages by the wild aborigines, or occasionally their services were called into request for other matters.
The first white police in the district – the Port Curtis District as it was then termed, with Gladstone as its headquarters – was soon after 1850. The chief man was designated the District Constable, and with him he probably had one or two constables. The District Constable was in charge of the whole district to the west and north, for in 1858 he sent a constable to Canoona to order Captain Hardy to return to Gladstone to his hotel, or it would be closed. The first District Constable of whom the writer has any knowledge was John M’llwraith.
The writer first visited Gladstone in 1864, when Pershouse, who then had a hotel, stated that he had been in Gladstone eleven years, consequently he must have gone there in 1863, presumably soon after Gladstone was founded. Till Rockhampton was founded Gladstone was necessarily the most northern township in New South Wales.
During the Canoona rush in 1858, armed police paraded up and down the streets formed by tents, with loaded rifles carried at the “slope,” in the effort to keep order among the angry diggers. This was the first occasion on which white police had been located in Rockhampton. When the rush died away probably a few police remained, though the appointment of a staff did not take place till September, 1860, when the following were in charge of the towns and immediate surroundings, evidently taking the place of the District Police, with headquarters at Gladstone:- Chief Constable, Thomas John Griffin, and Constables James Burke, John Champion, John Shepherd, John Canning and Patrick O’Reilly. The Griffin here mentioned was the man who seven or eight years later murdered the Clermont Gold Escort. Patrick O’Reilly was subsequently bootmaker in Quay-lane, and father of the late P. E. O’Reilly.
After the separation of Queensland from New South Wales in December,
1859, D. T. Seymour, the head of the Queensland police, later recognized
and improved that body considerably. So far as possible constables were
recruited from that fine body of men the Royal Irish Constabulary, who
had been thoroughly trained and disciplined. The force was organized
under the Police Act of 1863, when the following were stationed at
Rockhampton: Sub-inspector, Jeremiah Foran; sergeants, M’Mahon
and
Buckley: constables John Canning, Alexander Meldrum, Andrew Ilgeraty,
John Rice, Edward O’Beirne, Thomas Judge, Paul Love, Whelan and
Martin.
Of those constables Meldrum and Judge became Inspectors, Love and Hegarty
sergeants, and O’Beirne chief warder at the goal. M’Mahon
became Inspector of Distilleries.
There were no barracks for single constables at that time, so constables
had to board somewhere. In that way Andrew Hegarty became a room mate
of the writer for about twelve months. He was visited by others and so
by degrees the writer got to know and admire the private life of these
men.
In those times constables were chiefly young Irishmen, but now the force
is composed to a large extent of Australians.
With the new police system the change at Gladstone was probably that District Constable M’llwrath was changed for Sergeant W. W. Ware and constables David White and Garvey. Possibly there was one other constable. Sergeant Ware remained in charge for a number of years, and David White was transferred to Rockhampton where he remained till he was retired and then, with his wife, went back to Gladstone to end his days.
It was quite early in the history of Queensland under the new system, that the Police Force became a reliable and dependable body, and were distributed as far as possible in all the new districts and townships as they were opened up. These outlying stations were no sinecure, for the constable in charge had multitudinous duties of a routine character in addition to special duties such as chasing criminals, relieving the sick and seeking for people who had lost track of civilization.
Rockhampton was well served for a few years by the officers named, and then Sub-inspector Foran either died or was removed, giving place to that very capable officer, sub-inspector Elliott, who was closely identified with the arrest, conviction, and punishment of the notorious malefactors – who infested the Central District for some years in the late sixties.
Reference has been made on several occasions to that useful building, the Court House, which was completed in 1862. It stood exactly where the Land Court is now located. Rockhampton was made an assize town in 1863, and after that the Supreme Court Sittings were held in Rockhampton twice a year. Prior to that all persons committed for trial had to appear at Maryborough, which was not only a great expense, but an irritating inconvenience.
Prior to the completion of the Court House petty sessions were held by the Police Magistrate and justices of the peace in a small building at the corner of Fitzroy street and East lane, on the northern corner. It was subsequently used by Dr. T. C. Morrisen till his death, and then taken possession of by Dr. Callaghan, who remained till about the end of the sixties when he removed to a cottage at the corner of Denham street and East-lane, just above the then “Bulletin” Office.
The first police magistrate was Captain Vyner, sent up from Sydney by the New South Wales Government. After Separation the New South Wales Government permitted all holding positions in Queensland to restate them, otherwise they were permitted to return to New South Wales, and appointments found for them. Presumably Captain Vyner was one of those who returned, and he was appointed to a similar position at Tumut, where he died. Then John Jardine received the position of police magistrate for Rockhampton, a few years later giving place to William H. Wiseman, Jardine being sent to Somerset, Cape York.
The first two judges appointed by the new Government were Chief Justice
Cockle, and Justice Lutwyche. If the writer mistakes not, Justice Lutwyche
was the gentleman who took the initial sittings in Rockhampton.
He was a keen and observant man, with thin lips and a tight mouth, and
it always seemed to the writer that it gave him no little satisfaction
to deal out severe sentences. Possibly that is a pure assumption.
In a year or two District Courts were established, the first judge being Justice Innes, who, after a few years, returned to Sydney, and was a pusine judge of New South Wales for many years. Justice Innes was followed by Justice Hirst, who remained for some years.
Several of the barristers of the sixties were subsequently elevated to the Bench and became distinguished administrators of the law; some became political leaders; and a few were honoured by Knighthood. Among the later were Sir James Cockle, Sir Charles Lilley, and Sir Samuel Griffith. The last named was highly distinguished at the Bar, on the Bench, and as a political leader, and it is somewhat amazing to those acquainted with his eminent attainments and successful career, to find that he has been passed over instead of having his memory perpetuated by the erection of public statue.
Sir James Cockle, after the end of his term, returned to England, but
Justice Lutwyche died in the land of his adoption at an advanced age.
Most of the judges and barristers of the first two decades in the history
of Queensland have passed away, though a few remain as though to show
that longevity is not excluded from the Stat’s Judiciary.
A little more needs to be said about the Police Magistrates that were appointed to Rockhampton in early times. There were a good many during the first few decades, and they certainly dispensed justice with a startling difference in system. As a rule the prosecuting policeman was always believed and in many cases quite justly so, but there were instances where bias and exaggeration were quite discernible, and on occasion determinations showed more dogmatic obtuseness than probity and legal erudition. Tempering justice with mercy was a rare feature of judgments, but as time went on and men with more legal training were appointed there was a change for the better, and the Queensland stipendiary magistrates are now the equal of those in any other part of the British dominions.
During the sixties and seventies there was a tendency to license hotels
with straggling and insufficient premises and those mostly all on ground
but with the advent of Police Magistrate Lukin there was a great change
for the better. He refused to renew the licenses of such hostelries,
and the consequence was that in a year or two the Rockhampton hotels
were not only a credit to the town, but offered accommodation for travellers
and others quite superior to what had previously been the case.