ABOUT POLICEMEN

Evening Star, Issue 18817, 16 December 1924, Page 1

ABOUT POLICEMEN

LONDON AND NEW YORK TYPES. The- gentleness of the London policeman almost takes t-iie American's bream away, especially if ho comes horn New York (blares an American iu -a Loudon jomna.l. In New York. Lie policeman is a great, burly fellow, usually Irish, with a glint, ol Insu truculence in his rye. tie stands at tin* corner swinging a Heavy club, and to all intents and purposes sunning lor a light. Tho populaeo in New leak have a wholesome respect for, -and in many cases a real terror of, a “cop.” t ~ It is not so with the London “ bobby. You think of hun, not as a fighting man, but as a lender guardian angd. tie goes about apparently unarmed, and looking to tho outside, world entirely harniiecs. He is ■always ready to Help you. No mailer how foolish your question, he -will set you in safely ou some traffic island until ho 'mis time to come over and explain to you politely how to Touch the place lo which you want, to go, adding, cheerUilly, when ho is through-. "You can’t miss it, sir.” Ju that, very title there is something significant of the at lit,ude of the English policeman. Ho consuicns himself the servant of tho public, and in that spirit he addresses the public wiili respect,. A New iork policeman would never "sir" tho man in the street. To ids mind, if anybody- were to bo called ‘'sir” it would he himself, for is ho not the superior being, the follow armed by the law—-wiili a clubE Is. he not there to illustrate tho strength of the law, to show the public " where to get off'"? Tho Now Y'ork policeman is “hard boiled.” Ho knows how 1° use his club. He twirls it on his wiLt in tho poorer park of the city as he walks his -bout. Ho brandishes itoverhead when a crowd collects. He is occasionally admonished in the courts by- the judges for using it too freely. Whan he answers your questions in the street, he t-omehow makes you reel a thorough fool for not knowing your way about,. The patience and tho tender solicitude of the London policeman would seem lo him “soft boiled.” At heart you know they are t.ha same, the London "bobby” and the Now York “cop either one will be on the spot instantly yon arc in a tight place. One can shoot as straight as the other, and both of them can control a crowd. Perhaps it is the difference in the populations they have to handle that makes their methods appear so different. To choose between them? Well, that all dcp'-mls on whether you like your eggs soil or hard boiled.

The manager of a Wairampa slump station recently stated, when on a visit io Palmerston North, that by persistent ami profitable trapping, and with the aid of wire netting, be bad destroyed so many rabbits that the wool clip had increased by thirty bales, and the carrying capacity of the farm by 30 per cent. A cauliflower (says the ‘Otaki Mail’), grown in slanakau from seed raised in the township, weighs 361 b, and has a leaf expansion'over "all of 7fl sin, tho single leaf measuring 44in by 6in. The heart is 20in iu diameter