TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVII, Issue 137, 11 June 1909, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Inevitably the dismissal of three con- . stables in Wellington. "Cleansing the in consequence oi their Police Force." hooligan behaviour in a public street recently, has directed attention to the force as a whole. Following the report of the case, Mr. Arnold, ALP., hinted briefly, at Dunedin, that a commission of enquiry would do some good, but his statements were disappointingly meagre. He inferred that he had some information in his possession, but he gave nothing better than the shadow of its skeleton. In the House of Representatives Mr. Poole has put a question : — "What steps, if any, are being taken to cleanse thfl police force 0* the Dominion, and exercise greater care in the selection of men for this important department?" Mr. Poole, after the manner of Mr. Arnold, implies that he "knows something,'" and, indeed, these whispers of ownership of impressive facts are stirring the air noticeably. It is understood that the Minister of Justice has already interested himself in the personnel and general policy of the Police Department, and it seems that the country expects a show of energy from him. Even some members o£ the police, not concerned with the appointment of constables, have expressed a belief that unsuitable individuals have somehow managed to pass muster ; they complain of a decadence in the standard of constable. What are the reasons ? Is there, not sufficient inducement for good men to offer themselves ? Have the better men in the service at present any reasonable cause for discontent? These questions have been quietly asked and repeated for some time, and the matter is one that should be thoroughly investigated. Some Wellington business men have suddenly realised that "After the there is a strong pr,obaEvent?" bility that Parliameivt will be piorogued next week to enable the Prime Minister to attend the Imperial Defence Conference on the terms that he stipulated. On Monday, at the informal meeting of legislators, Sir Joeeph Ward was assured of a majority to back him in that part of the programme — tho adjournment — which has been repeatedly opposed in The Post for the past two or three weeks, but it has just dawned, apparently, on some sections of the community that the keys are ready to turn in the locks of Parliament Buildings, and the Prime Minister is thinking of portmanteaux rather than portfolios. Was it nob very..ploin in tho latter -part

of May that the x Prime Minister had set himself on going to London, and was determined not to go unless Parliament would agree to adjourn? The Premier knew that he could command a majority of the members. What, then, was likely to happen? How much do 2' and 2 make? A representative of the business community remarked on Wednesday that there were some members of Parliament, purporting to be financiers, for whom merchants would have no use at £2 per week. Some of the Parliamentarians may retort that Parliament would have little use for such business men v?ho failed to realise, till tho last day or two, that an adjournment of Parliament was a very strong probabil ity. We consistently opposed the shelving of the country's business for several months, and our opposition was not based on a vague rumour. We made H very clear, some long days back, that the whole strength of the Government would be used to secure a postponement of the session proper for four or five months. The Post condemned the Government's intentions, not because they were likely to be distasteful to Wellington, but because they would be harmful to the whole of New Zealand. The Government has lacked the imagination necessary to se2 that a course of conduct, which is likely to be intensely disliked by the country at large before Sir Joseph returns, must react against the Government. But we fear that not even this consideration, any more than the belated protest of Wellington's business men, will stop the mischief that was so palpably put in train two or three week? ago. "Better late than never' 1 for the protest, but why the extraordinary delay ? "The Black Hand" exulted when Petrosini was slain ; for The no other man in the ! Black Hand service of law and Again. order possessed in like degree the skill, combined with intrepidity, which made him so eminently a terror to evildoers. But no secret league, however numerous or strongly banded, which exists to prey upon the community, can succeed in the end. The cable news from New York to-day shows at the same" time something of the magnitude of this band, of robbers and murderers, and the unexpected way in which its schemes may come to naught. Petrosini, it is true, is dead, but the police remain, and evidently they are not at the end of their resources. In Marson, Ohio, in what is supposed to be the district headquarters of the band — a tradesman's shop — has been found a sheaf of incriminating documents, thousands in number, and the names have thus come to light of more than one hundred business 'men who have been submitting v to blackmail under the threat of assassination — a threat which, it may be remarked, recent murders of well-to-do and prominent Italians shows to have been relentlessly enforced. Eight arrests, we learn, have been made ; and if these are ringleaders the vampires may have met with a salutary check. Of course, it is not stated to wha,t extent the captured doduments have exposed the plans of the body or revealed the identity of ite unknown Jeaders ,• but secret leagues of lawless men have a strange weakness for putting their compromising knowledge in black and white. There is a dangerous section of the "American" people^ — idl the more dangerous that it has the franchise — American only in the privileges it exercises, but foreign to the core, hating the national ideals and recognising no obligation of patriotism, citizenship, or morality. Now that the community is realising that its very existence is threatened by this dangerous class, it is to be hoped that no sentimental pretexts may be- allowed to hamper the course of justice.