Retiring Police Matron Made Friends In Work

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29856, 23 June 1962, Page 2

Retiring Police Matron Made Friends In Work

A woman who will be remembered by many hundreds of women and girl offenders for her kindness and consideration retired this week from the Police Force. She is Mrs Margaret Felton, matron at the Christchurch Central Police Station for more than 10 years. A soft-spoken, kindly person with a motherly appearance, Mrs Felton did not bully women prisoners to obtain their co-operation. The women and girls who came under her charge respected her for the tact and sympathy she showed them.

Mr* Felton has never been assaulted or abused on the job. "I’ve never had one moment's trouble with any girl," she said yesterday. "If you treat female offenders with kindness and consideration you will always get more from them." Although site has come in contact with much of the sordid side of life. Mrs Felton has retained her pleasant personality. Sometimes the work can be far from pleasant. She regards the tending and laying-out of bodies of women who have been in a fire or accident as the worst aspect of the job. Mrs Felton has a way of handling the most aggressive prisoners without any disturbance of officiousness. While she has been matron there have been on outbreaks of violence, obscene language or abuse at court. Only on one occasion has one "of her prisoners attempted to escape. A young girl made a short-lived dash for freedom at the Magistrate’s Court recently. She

waa caught by the police a few yards from the court building.

“You can't get co-operation from most of these girls by just ordering them about." said Mrs Felton. “A command given in an arrogant tone only makes them all the more determined to be defiant.

“Order a girl to clean up a cell with a tone like a sergeant-major, and many of them will refuse. If you start to tidy it up yourself most of them will soon give you a hand.

“The approach to each prisoner has to be varied according to her temperament There are times when you have to be firm but it must be remembered, all human beings have dignity and pride. No girl or woman is wholly bad and if given a little understanding thev usually respond.” Nfrs Felton said.

The work has its compensations. Every Christmas Mrs Felton receives dozens of cards from women and girls all over New Zealand who have been under her care at one time.

“I’m glad that I’ve been able to help some of them. Their gratitude gives me a good deal of satisfaction and is some indication that I’ve done a worth-while job," Mrs Felton said. The duties of a police matron are many and varied. She attends and advises women prisoners, searches them, keep* a regular watch on them while they are in the cells, attends court with them, escorts tt>«n to prison or Borstal and does many other similar tasks. Her work also includes the minding of lost children, standing beside women witnesses when they give evidence in court and prepan ns bodies for post-mortem examinations. She has to look after mental defectives on occasions. Mrs Felton said she would have worked on until she was 60. but working condition* bad deteriorated tn the last two years. For many years the matron had a house in the ground* of the Central Police Station, but because of pressure on space, most of it wa* taken over to provide a changing room, lockers ana toilet facilities for the men The matron’s quarters are now confined to one room, a kitchen and a toilet. Until about two years ago the matron was not required to sleep on the station She lived only 10 minute* from the station and the arrangement worked very satisfactorily.

Then a bed was placed in the small and already-clut-tered' rooms in the matron’s quarters. “Women prisoners in the cells have to be visited every two hours during the night so it is almost impossible to obtain any "sleep I never used the bed and used to sit up all night,” said Mrs Felton. Long Hours

Ever since Mrs Felton joined the police she has worked 48 hours one week and 120 the next week. “Of course you are not working all the time, but you are on call during those periods. If you are at home you have to stay close to the telephone in case you get a call,’’ she said.

“The matron should be provided with proper quarters. Fully-equipped flats are used by the matrons in Auckland. Wellington and Dunedin,’’ Mrs Felton said.

At one period Mrs Felten worked for three years without assistance. It is only during the last two years she has had an assistant.

Mrs Felton was educated at the Napier Girls’ High School and did office work before getting married. "Some time after her husband, Inspector P. C. Felton died, she was asked to act as relieving police matron at Christchurch. After 12 she accepted a permanent position. Mr Felton was in the force for 39 years. The present matrons at the Central Police Station are Misses M. Bums and N. Boyle.

A presentation of cutlery was made to Mrs Fellton by Constable R. A. Henderson, on behalf of the Police Social dub, on Wednesday afternoon. Chief Superintendent P. Kearney spokt for the department.