My Account
Anzac Paratene, who was named after the day on which he was born, spent a large part of his working life – from 1969 to 1993– as a policeman in Orewa. He became well known and respected in the community. These days, aged 72, he’s enjoying retirement in Red Beach and here shares memories of the days when he was the area’s only policeman.
I took up a job as sole charge police officer for this district, which included Orewa, Whangaparaoa, Waiwera and Dairy Flat, in 1969. I moved here with my wife and four children to live in Orewa. Back then Orewa had a permanent population of about 3000 people. It swelled to nearer 30,000 in the summer holidays.
My work in those days involved attending a lot of motor accidents, as police handled any traffic incidents that involved injuries. There were quite a few thefts, such as from holiday homes that were left vacant, and I spent a lot of my evenings breaking up fights caused by drinking. Back then police had the backing of parents when their children got into trouble, which made my job a lot easier. When I first came here there were no domestic incidents at all, which I found hard to believe coming from Kaikohe where Friday to Sunday nights was all about dealing with domestic disputes. As the population grew, there was more of this type of thing happening in Orewa and Whangaparaoa, and I generally acted as peacemaker and only arrested someone when it was absolutely necessary.
Sea rescues were also part of my job. I had spotters keeping an eye out and we made many successful rescues, mainly using water taxis which were operating out of Waiwera in those days. They were good, fast boats and it was much quicker to do that than wait for someone to come from Auckland. I was also the local bailiff for the justice department, so as well as police work I had to serve documents like summonses. This was quite beneficial to my police work because I found out who was in debt and usually they were the same people got in trouble with the law.
My wife Joan was an unpaid, unofficial member of staff too, taking phone calls when I was out and calling me on the radio telephone. I used my own car – no police car was provided – but it had RT.
I had to provide coverage around the clock and I couldn’t have done it without Joan’s help.
In my spare time I did a bit of boating with friends, exploring around the area, and played in the police rugby team. I also ran a youth club for local kids – took them away on trips and 10 pin bowling. There wasn’t much for young people to do in the early days, so I did what I could to help. I had quite a lot of leisure time to spend with my family, despite the long hours on the job, and made some very good friends in Orewa that we saw a lot of. I found out how many friends I’d made once when I had a bad accident in Silverdale and wrote off the car. I ended up in hospital and I’m told that when word got out about this, the hospital switchboard was jammed by well-wishers calling to find out how I was!
I made it to the title of Senior Constable, sole charge. I chose to do country work rather than take promotion because I preferred to be out among the public than being stuck in an office. I made a lot of good contacts in the community so that quite often all I had to do was pick up the phone instead of hopping in the car and rushing out. People kept their eyes and ears open and they were keen to help. I also had a good relationship with all the schools and when they called me in, I would be there immediately. It meant I could nip a lot of problems in the bud and help put young people back on track before they got into even more trouble.
All burglaries were investigated back then, and I got a lot of information from the public that helped me solve some of those cases. We had two cells in Orewa police station where we could put people that we’d arrested, but because they needed to be watched all night as well as all day, we generally transferred them to Takapuna and they’d appear in North Shore District Court. Most of the crime was small stuff, but we did have a gruesome murder in Orewa, which came from a domestic dispute, and a double murder at the Wade River which involved a former mental institution inmate. I would say that one of the highlights of my career was acting as air marshall on an Air New Zealand flight to Los Angeles in the 1970s. The airline had heard about a possible hijack and wanted police on board. The incident didn’t eventuate, but I was able to have a bit of a holiday there before they flew me back.
What I enjoyed most was dealing with people, and the satisfaction of getting the job done right. I received a citation from the police for successfully investigating a series of fires. It turned out the arsonist was also a local volunteer firefighter. I was honoured with the Queen’s Police Medal for services to the community. It was pinned on me in Wellington by Sir Keith Holyoake. Most of my time in Orewa I was the only cop, but of course the population grew so much that eventually they gave me a second man up here, and by the time I retired I had six men working with me.
My four children all went to school in Orewa. My son Phil has followed me into the police – at one time we were working together. His two sons, Jeremy and Steven are also in the police and I have a nephew who’s a detective sergeant in Auckland. My daughter Anna is a keen horse rider and growing up in Kaikohe I had learned to ride a horse from a young age. My wife likes horses too, so it became a huge interest for our family.
Through attending a lot of shows that Anna competed in – the A & P and Easter Shows and so on – and my police background, I was put in charge of the drug testing of horses throughout the country, which was a big job. It was quite common for people to dope up their horses to make them nice and quiet while they were competing. I was also talked into helping to organise the horse riding part of the Easter Show and the A & P Show that’s just been held in Orewa. I’m starting to bow out of that a bit now, as I’m not getting any younger and can leave most of it to Anna.
I wouldn’t like to leave Orewa now. Even when I retired it didn’t occur to me to move anywhere else. I say retired, but I still keep up the gardens at the police station and help out here and there when I can.
It’s a hard job to ever give up completely.
