POLICE & SUPERANNUATION

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 53, 11 September 1928, Page 10

POLICE & SUPERANNUATION

(To the Editor.) Sir, —An article appeared in your issue of the Ist September, 1928, wherein it was stated that a claim was being made for a readjustment of the conditions of the Superannuation Fund relating to the Police Department. At first sight this appears to be rather extraordinary, as the fund is based on actuarial data. On looking into the matter, however, the claim appears to be essentially fair and reasonable, and should be supported bjr the public. The service rendered to the community by the police is not generally recognised at its true value. It is more or less a silent service, and is taken as a matter of course. There is a feeling of security enjoyed by our people in everyday matters, which does much to make life pleasurable. This is always evident to one returning to New Zealand after residence abroad, and this we undoubtedly owe to the high standard of efficiency and integrity of the members of our Police Force. ' Under present conditions, a member of the Force must give forty years' service in order to entitle him to the maximum retiring allowance of two-thirds pay, and as his service cannot commence to run until he has attained the age of twentyone years (the average, I understand, is twenty-five years), he cannot retire before sixty-one to sixty-five years of age. It is unreasonable to expect a. man ■to undertake onerous and sometimes dangerous police duties at that age. As compared with other branches of the Civil ■ Service in regard to superannuation, the Police Force is at a decided disadvantage, and the claim now made deserves the support of the public who are 60 well served. It is to be hoped that the matter will receive the support of the Hon. the Minister of Justice in tha amending Bill to the Police Force Act, which, I nnderstand, is being brought down immediately.—l am, etc., JAMES MINTOSH.--10th September.