THE POLICE.

Evening Star, Issue 9831, 21 October 1895, Page 1

THE POLICE.

Tg® annual report of Commissioner Home for the year ended March 31 contains, in addition to the usuai statistical information, valuable remarks and suggestions by the Commissioner as to the work and efficiency of the force, the operation of the laws for the repression of crime, offences against morality, and for the regulation of the liquor traffic. Colonel Hume is eminently a practical maii, and it is to be regretted that his recommendations embodied in previous reports have not been given full effect to. He always speaks straight out, giving no regard either to the peculiar fads of the Ministerial head of the department or to popular prejudice and clamor. On this occasion be repeats what he has over and again pointed out —that the force, which is small in proportion to the population, would be made more efficient by certain departmental arrangements and a few simple amendments of the law ; but we may presume that his words of sound advice will continue to fall on deaf ears, since the present Defence Minister has such overweening confidence in his own judgment that he sets at naught the. counsel of experts as well as the lessons of experience, . In order to have a thoroughly efficient police force Colonel Hume declares that periodical transfers from one district or station to another, for all ranks, is imperative ; but, he adds, the difficulties in carrying this out are almost insurmountable. Immediately orders are given for a constable’s transfer the inhabitants of the place where he is stationed forward a petition to the Minister that the move may not take place, whilst “the local “ medical, man is often of opinion “that the removal as ordered will be “ detrimental to the constable’s health; “and, in the event of these ■ two “ appeals failing, it is generally discovered “ that the wife of the person concerned is “ in very indifferent health, and the climate “ to which the husband is ordered would “be most unsuitable to his wife and “family. Judging by the correspondence “ which pours in on the department when “a move is ordered, one cannot help “ coming- to the conclusion that the “majority of the force are married to “ chronic invalids ”! The Commissioner expresses himself strongly of opinion that when once a transfer is ordered the member of the force should proceed as directed without delay, or take the alternative of resigning his position. The New Zealand police, Colonel Hume says, “ labor sorely ” under two great disadvantages—the want of a superannuation scheme, and, as a consequence thereof, tardiness of promotion. He has formulated a scheme, he states, under which increases of pay would be “ given by length of service,” and believes that this would give general satisfaction. He proposes further that there should be only four classes of rank—viz., inspectors, sergeants, constables, and detectives—instead of thirteen different ranks, as at present, in a force of less than 500 men. Pcrhapsthemost important duties, he says, which the department has to deal with are the administration of the laws relating to the drink traffic, gambling, the social evil, and larrikinism, but the enforcement of some of these is beset with difficulties and legal technicalities which are almost insurmountable, and “ directly there is any failure the police alone are blamed.” In commenting on the liqxior question, ho notes that a great deal is said about the force being reorganised, “but I boldly “ assert that so long as the liquor laws “ remain as at present no possible organisation could grapple with the question,” There should, for instance, he says, be a proper definition of what a “ bar ” is; only one bar should be allowed in any licensed house, and no liquor should be sold or exposed for sale except in the bar. Then, again, a traveller should cease to be such after visiting the first hotel he enters outside the three-mile radius from the place where he slept the previous night. As the law now stands, it is pointed out, a traveller can obtain liquor at every licensed house in a town during prohibited hours without committing any breach of the law.' Inspector Broham, in reporting on Canterbury and North Otago, made, it may be noted, very apposite remarks on this phase of the question. The police, he says, have been much exercised in endeavoring to enforce the licensing law in -such a way as to afford no cause of complaint, but the many defects in the Act have been serious obstacles in the way. “So long as publi- “ cans or their servants can give liquors “ away on Sundays, or after the hours of “ closing, to all manner of persons without “ committing a breach of the Act by so “ doing, or keep their bars open, or allow “a number of persons who are neither “boarders nor lodgers to remain in the “ bar, so long will the efforts of the police “ prove abortive.” Returning to the Commissioner’s report, we find statistics quoted showing a decrease in the convictions for drunkenness on the preceding year of 657, and for sly grog-selling of 21, which may be presumed to indicate progress towards temperance. Colonel Hume affirms that, in order to deal effectually with the larrikin nuisance the police require extended powers to enable them at once to arrest persons who block the streets or footpaths and refuse to move on when ordered to do so. The suppression of gambling has, he states, received considerable attention during the year, and “ the social evil “ and larrikin pests have been considerably lessened since the introduction of “ the Criminal Code Act.” The Commissioner concludes his exceptionally interesting report by declaring that one of the main objects aimed at in the administration of the department is to bring the police in “ closer touch ” with the people, and thereby establish a system of confidence and reliance on each other. In meeting deputations of Prohibitionists and others he has endeavortd to impress on them that “in such “ work unity is strength, and that if they “ and the department could only unite “ their labors much good would result.” “In many instances,” he says, “the desired “end has been arrived at, but from recent “ events in Christchurch it would appear “that the mere mention of the depart- “ ment to what is known as the Prohibi- “ tion party can only be compared to the “ simile of holding out a red rag to ahull.” The reason for this, he continues, seems quite inexplicable ; and it is to he hoped that in future that party will take the department into their confidence and work together for the common cause—better carrying out of the liquor laws. “ There “ seems no reason why the police and “ every section of the community should “ not work hand in hand in endeavoring “ to maintain law and order,”