POLICE AND PROHIBITIONISTS.

Press, Volume LII, Issue 9013, 28 January 1895, Page 3

POLICE AND PROHIBITIONISTS.

'TO THE SUITOR OF THE FRE3S. Sir, —It is now quite fime to clear out of this delightful (?) town and hobby-ridden country. Not a week passes but some new fangled idea is shot out by hobbyist or Government. The latest is a demand that one or more of our detective officers are to be 'removed from this district. because, forsooth, they have relations in the hotel trade. ' The "policeman's lot is not a happy one." I Save hira "from hi 3 foes, his friends, and' I especially. his relatives. .Unlucky detective, [that he should have & sister, .a codsin, or an i aunt in hotel life. And so, to pander to' 1 screaming nobbyists, the community is to lose tlie valuable services of one or more of its detectives at a time when extra diligence is required to combat growing crime, begotten of hardened times. A detective's services are most valuable when he has par- , ticular knowledge of his "lambs." Chang* 1 ing such men must be at the expense of justice, Our police protection is small , enough, 'and why so good ?. Because the detectives here are all old officers, and know all likely criminals. To their credit, I write, few crimes go unpunished. I hear that there exists a police regulation governing the principle of change where relationship exists as'above. If so, is it not a mistake to apply it to the detective force, for most of the smartest officers in tbe 1 colony are liable to dismissal or relegation to up-country stations, dependent'upon the number of the poor fellows' relatives ? What do you think of it, Mr Editor, and the same question, please, to the mercantile community, shopkeepers and nervous householders.—Yours, &c, - „ Squeak.