THE UNHAPPY CONSTABLE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIV, Issue 78, 28 September 1907, Page 3

THE UNHAPPY CONSTABLE.

STUFFY QUARTERS. Sadness and sickness stalk among the police. Influenza has run more than or.o stalwart constable into ha: racks, strong m&n who hnvo cheerfully done ro much beating are themselves beatcu at hst by a tiny bacillus. When ho is -well tho Eoliceman has a just grievance against is quarters at tho Lambton-quay Station, andi when hn is ill his "plight is deeply pitiable. A Post reporter, whoie ears wcro reached by a, buzz of discontent, visited the barracks, and soon caw enouph to make him grateful that ho was not a policeman. Ho found twenty-Acven men living in an ill-venti-lated attic, airanged like a, rabbit warren, and otheis huddled into Tooms originally intended as a library and a hospital respectively. One man was ill with quinsy, thero were six down with influenza, and many otheis fighting with nmmoniatnd' quinine against tho first symptoms of the prevailing epidemic. As originally constructed tho building was itnsuited for the requirements at of the Police Station, and subsequent eSorts to improve it have been attended with Tory little success. Tho vnen were' quaitercd in large rooms on the first floor. Accommodation became overtaxed, and extra quarters wcro secured in a private housa. A second congestion followed, and then a plan which has resulted in tho present stato of affairs was carried out. An extra, story was added, and divided into twenty-^oven "stalls)" a smnll fltoir-room, and .two bathrooms. These "stalls" aro about six feofc wide, eigat f«et long, with partitions about seven feet high, and lead off narrow passages which *un at different augles round tho chimneys of the building, and com-? to blind, abrupt terminations. If tho arranging of tho floor space was intended to infufce into cor.siablcs some of tho characteristics of the ferret, it was a biilliant success, for one ftels, v as ho wends his way along " thoso pa^ages, that ho is in a rabbit warren. Gloomy and "stuffy" ai'o these hermit celb. The ! authorities appear to imagine that the constable gets enough frcbh air on the beat to last '-him for the time that he is indoors, but what about tho uufoitunata men who aTo too sick to go out for tho necessary supplies?