PRESENTATION TO SUBINSPECTOR BROBERG

Evening Post, Volume XCIII, Issue 43, 19 February 1917, Page 2

PRESENTATION TO SUBINSPECTOR BROBERG

A POPULAR OFFICER.

On tho eve of his departure from Dunedin for Auckland last week, SubInspector Broberg, well known in Wellington as Chief-Detective Broberg, was farewelled by tho presiding Magistrate and representatives of those- with whom he has been associated during his stay in the southern eitv.

Before commencing the business, Mr. Bartholomew said (hat in the sibseiice- of tho senior Magistrate (Mr. Witldowson) ho wished on behalf of the Bench to express their appreciation of SubInspeeior Broberg and the mu.nner in which he had carried out his duties. Tho Sub-inspactor was best known and came most in contact with tho public .in his capacity as prosecutor in the Court. That by no means represented all his duties, but it was a matter in which he had shown himself most efficient and effective. .In carrying out his duties he brought to his aid ripe experience, sound knowledge, and most painstaking thoroughness. There was one other side of his work which appealed only to the Magistrate-, but it was a most important part of his duty. He referred to maintenance cases. In these matters the Magistrate could not have too much assistance from the police, and the Subinspector had shown his usual thoroughness in his investigations. While in cases of hardship and misfortune he had shown every consideration, yet there was the other type where individuals had attempted to impose on the Court, and thanks to the manner in which he had done his work bo had been able to expose such shams. While he regretted his departure, he recognised that the Subinspector was going to the city.of Auckland, which he understood was big in every way, including crime, so he would have more scope for his energies and ability. He wished him all success and the advancement in the service to which his qualifications and knowledge' entitled him.

Mr. A. S. Adams, on behalf of the Law Society, said that the members of the profession who were in the habit of practising in that Court appreciated very much what his Worship had said of SubInspector Broberg. Personally, he was not in as good a position to form a judgment as were some of his brethren, but one who was frequently in that Court said of the Sub-inspector : "He is a splendid man, one of the best we have had in.Dunedin." His own personal experience in the cases in which he had been engaged was that' he had received definite assistance from the Sub-inspector ; and ho had found that while he was determined—as every police officer ought to be—that all the essential facts in every case should be brought before the Court, he was also impressed with the essential principle of British justice that it was more important that no innocent person should be found guilty than to prevent the escape of the guilty through failure in intensity of the prosecution.

Other speakers were Mr. F. J. dimming (probation officer), Mrs. Jackson (St. Vincent de Paul Society), and tho Rev. Mr. Axelsen (Presbyterian Social Service Association), who refnrred to the help they had received for their respective institutions from the Sub-inspector.

On Friday evening men from all the sub-stations in Dunedin assembled to bid farewell to their chief, arid striking tributes to his work were paid by the various speakers.