BEYOND ATTAINMENT

Evening Star, Issue 19985, 1 October 1928, Page 16

BEYOND ATTAINMENT

POLICE RETIRING AGE FORGE UNEASY OVER DELAY Why is the Government delaying the bringing down ot the Police Force Bill, as promised in the Speech of the Gov-ernor-General at the opening of the present session of Parliament? To say that the feeling of uneasiness in the police ranks throughout .the dominion is being accentuated by the delay is merely stating -a fact. The session ends on October 5, and so far there has been no indication that tho Government proposes to bring in a Bill giving more liberal superannuation to members of the force. A prompt settlement ol their proposals is being forced by the police, but the Government has yet to . show any inclination to perform His Excellency's promise. In 1909 the members of the forctthroughout the dominion voted against the merger of the old Police Provident Fund, which had been in action tor ten years and 1 hen had an accumn latcd fund of £33.000. But the fund was merged into the Public Service Superannuation Fund, and the main con tentions of the adversaries ,of the police claims are that tocavil :r----vice and the police force are parallel Their contention is that if the claims were granted to the police similar concessions would also havo to be granted to all other branches of the Public Service. The analogy between Civil servants and the ponce is neld by the police to be a false plea, having no basis in fact. The branches are not comparable, and that being so the different claims should bo considered separately and not on the basis of generality. The English Police Pensions Act (1921) recognises the profound dificronce in the nature of duties as compared by the police force and other branches of the Civil service, " F ( t the purpose of pension, three years of police service shall be reckoned as equivalent to four years of service as i Civil servant, statcc: subsection (a) of section 10 of that Act. And _ although that principle is recognised in England. the New Zealand force is less ambitions and asks that seven years of police service shall count as eight years of service for the purpose of superannuation, fn other words, they ask that instead of serving forty years as at present stipulated in the Act, they should servo only thirty-five years. And even then they would be serving, five years longer than the other Civil servants. In England and practically all other parts of the British Empire the service period is ...lirly years, being ten years lower than the police in New Zealand now enjoy and five years lower than the period they now petition for. Only those not in possession of the full facts would say that the police and other Civil servants are parallel eases for the purpose of superannuation. One of the greatest answers to their opinions would be that by necessity the policeman enters the force at a later age than the Civil servant. While a girl or boy can enter the Public Service at the age ot fifteen years, the minimum age at which a man can become a unit of the police force is twenty-one, but it is no secret that the department prefers a man to be about twenty-five years ol age, and that is the average age of joining. The law requires an officer to serve forty years at present before he can retire on superannuation. Ho is therefore sixty-five years, when ho is required to retire—that is if he has not already broken down in health. No one will deny that the , police force runs at all times grave risks of Ufo and health. Their long hours on .the beat in all weathers, the searching of nondescript persons, the handling of bodies, and affrays with truculent criminals, combine to make deadly attacks on a man’s health, and statistics prove that the possibility of a survival of forty years of rigorous service, made arduous by the obligations of duty, is very small. The average length of service in the force is nndispntably recorded in figures as 25.79 years, the retirement or death of the officer haying taken place. That is nearly fifteen years below the present retiring age. The critics might advance the contention that those figures have been worked out over the whole force, Including the misfits and failures, hut the Wellington ‘ Evening Post ’ has stated

“ Let the statistical tape bo run over only those policemen who have completed twenty years’ service, and the result is an average ol 32.5 years, or seven and a-half years less than the minimum service entitling to maximum pension. “ Here are a few more figures to show how few of those proved good triers who have been in the Police Force to 1 twenty years are capable physically ol going on for the second twenty years that complete the objective:—Taking the last 4-J years for which figures, are available (from January, 1924, to July, 1923), it is found that during that period twenty died; thirty-two were retired as medically unfit, or on less than full pension; and those who were able to retire with forty years’ (nr more) service numbered only two. To put it in percentages, 3.7 per cent, completed the forty years’ service entitling to full pension, and 96,3 per cent, failed to do so.

“ And this is what happens to men who entered the service at the ago of twenty-one or older, every one of them passed as A 1 physically and mentally after special medical examination. Is it any wonder that the police to-day contrast their position with what existed under the Police Provident Act, 1899, when thirty-six years’ service entitled a contributor to the maximum retiring allowance? Are they overstating the case when they say that the law to-day, demanding forty years’ service for maximum retiring allowance of two-thirds of pay, operates as a liability rather than as a benefit to the police generally?” Having been lor a quarter of a century surgeon to the Wellington police, Dr C, D. Henry states: ‘‘From a health point of view,' I consider police duty dangerous owing to the risk of infection, exposure, and violence, and 1 have l«;ind this reflected in the health of the force generally. In my opinion, it is quite unreasonable to expect members of the force to serve forty years before retiring on superannuation. As a result of my long experience, 1 consider the majority of members of the force more or less worn out and incapable of carrying out practical police duty before attaining thirty-five years’ service."

Of the eight men who in 1922 hold the rank of chief detective, or of senior detective,' four have since died in the service, one retired with thirty-five years’ service, and of the remaining three none has yet done thirty-five years’ service; yet one of them has had a nervous breakdown. Getting back again to a mere £ s. d. point of view, do the people of New Zealand realise the immense gap between the cost of the New Zealand Police Force and the higher-paid Australian State police forces? (asks the ‘Post’). Here are figures of the cost of police per inhabitant in 1927 Queensland. 11s 9d; New South Wales, 10s 3/d; South Australia. 9s 4,Jd; Victoria, 8s bid; New Zealand. 5s BJd. On the same authority, figures will now be presented comparative of the superannuation payments an,d returns of a police constable, and of a Civil Service clerk. It is peculiar that the former in thirty-five years and the latter in forty years, pays into the Public Service Superannuation Fund exactly the same amount, £586 10s. At least 95 per cent, of the members of the Police Force, including CommisM'Uveney, support the petition

that thirty-live (instead of forty) years’ service shall enable a policeman to qualify for full retiring allowance (two-thirds of retiring pay). And the above figures and facts have Police Force authority. So long as these surprising facts and figures stand, will anyone deny the force the considerations claimed for it on the plea of service conditions and Empire precedent?. Does anyone see justice in a service period that, in the opinion of a police surgeon like Dr Henry, is for the, great majority of policemen unattainable ?.