POLICE PERSECUTION.

Evening Post, Volume LVI, Issue 79, 30 September 1898, Page 2

POLICE PERSECUTION.

1 TO TIIE EDITOR. I Sir— What seems to mo a decided persecution is being practised in this town against ono man. Recently ho was convicted of an alleged assault, and fined 40s and costs on the ilimsiest of evidence, and ifc was considered the persecution would for all timo havo ceased. But such was not to be. On Sunday evening a most ostentatious display of police vigilance was made outside the Ranfurly Hotel, and for absolutely no reason. About 7 o'clock the new Commissioner, so it is said, was passing with members of his family, and saw several football boarders (two football teams being put up there) outer tho Ranfurly. Suddenly an order is given, and a sergeant-major and constable search the hotel, but find tho bars closed, everything conducted in orderly fashion, and none but boarders in any part of the hotel. But the suspicion of the Commissioner was to continue, and until 12 o'olock a policeman patrolled, presumably under orders, in front of the hotel door, while other hotels were entirely neglected. No doubt the whole thing was in order, so far as law goes, but, eveu to the most biased this must surely seem a want of fairness. " Treat all alike, but don'fc hurl your vengeance all at one" is an old Roman maxim, and ifc applies in the case under notice. The natural result of the whole thing is that a legitimate business is injured, interests ou all sides are reduced, and a feeling of insecurity engendered where it ought not to exist, especially in a land of which it is the proud boast that it is " God's own free country." I am, &c, Eaikplay. 30th September.