INSPECTOR BROHAM.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 10146, 20 September 1898, Page 4

INSPECTOR BROHAM.

If there is one moral of great pubhc JLportan-e to be deduced from the report of the Police Commission recently presented to Parliament, it is that all questions of police appointments, transfers, resignations or dismissals ought to be removed from the sphere of Ministerial control or political influence. In view of this fact, we regretted to see an announcement recently that a Cabinet meeting was to be held to consider the question of Inspector Broham s resignation. To our minds that is a sort of question with which the Cabinet ought to have nothing to do. Inspector Broham's resignation is a purely departmental matter, which ought to be dealt with by the head of the department on his responsibility -alone. The wildest stretch of imagination could not picture Lord Salisbury summoning his colleagues to consider the resignation of the most able and efficient police officer in Great Britain, and to our mind it will be a good thing for New Zealand when the same course of action shall appear equally incongruous and out of place here. Holding these views, it also follows'that we regard it as highly undesirable that the question of whether particular police officers are to remain in the service or to leave it should be made the subject of party agitation at public meetings. The large gathering which assembled at the Theatre Royal last night, however, to express its views on the matter of Inspector Broham's resignation stands on a different footing, and is in some respects .quite sui generis. It will be seen that it was in no sense = a party demonstration. The political aspect of the case was resolutely eschewed. It was a representative gathering of citizens, embracing both sides in politics, imbued with a sincere belief that the Police Commission, in censuring Inspector Broham, had acted without a full knowledge of the real facts of the case, and that if his resignation is allowed to take effect, not only wilt an injustice be done to an officer holding a long and unimpeachable record of good work, but that the public service of the colony will suffer in losing an able and efficient- servant of a stamp it can ill spare at this juncture. With this view we cordially agree. We do not think, nowever, that the Ministry should actively interfere in the matter. They should leave it to be settled by Coinsioner T-unbridge, with an entirely unfettered discretion, in what he considers the best interests of the public service. He is in a far better position than the Police Commission to judge as to the merits of Inspector, Broham, and if he does not agree with the view contninea in the report, an intimation should be conveyed to- Inspector Broham to that effeot, with a. suggestion that his resignation should be withdrawn. We have no doubt Inspector Broham would gladly place himself in the hands of his official superior, and we are quite sure that so far as the public of Canterbury are concerned, they would be glad to see the matter solved in the way we have pointed out. Whatever the result may be, last night's meeting is an emphatic testimony of the public appreciation o_ the way in which Inspector-Broham has carried out bis duties, and constitutes a compliment of which he will always have reason to feel proud.