CRIMELESS TOWN

Greymouth Evening Star, 22 March 1935, Page 9

CRIMELESS TOWN

YEARS WITHOUT A CASE. I TENTERDEN (Kent), Jam 20. ! Here, in Tenterden, ono of England’s smallest boroughs, where many families trace their ancestors back to the davs of the Tudors, preparations are being made to welcome a new i Recorder, Mr J. F. Eastwood, M.P., who looks uncommonly like succeeding to a sinecure among public offices.; Tenterden is so care-free and inuo-i cent that the white-gloves habit has j long since been abandoned, although] : in Mr Eastwood’s case, and because; i he will be sworn in next month, it is I likely that he will be presented with !a pair. Its sergeant of police and four constables ate happy men. Just three months ago the copybook of this, model pocket borough' was slightly soiled, for after a long in-! 'tcrval there was actually a small case. I But in freedom from crime Tenterden I is remarkable. Until a lapse from ■ j the paths of virtue a few years ago, 1 [ Tenterden had been clear of the I • slightest criminal stain for 12 long ’years. Recorder succeeded Recorder; | they drew their fees ami did practi- 1 cally nothing. Mr S. G. Champion, the- Clerk of

rhe Pence, and holder of several other public offices, could give no reason why Tenterden is so law abiding, save the very obvious one that the people have a constitutional objection to dining wrong. ■ "Quarter Sessions have been held in Tenterden ever since onjp. can remember," he said. "Until 1836 justice was In the hands of the Mayor, who had the prerogative of giving the death sentence. .. ; *> “We have no Sessions house, but wo have a movable witness box and a dock which are placed in position in. the Town Hall when necessary. Al-. so. wo have a police station, with, cells, but it is rarely, rarely used.' Nominally, the magistrates .are supposed to sit once a fortnight. Unless, they receive an urgent chit from the clerk's office they stay at home. ' Stainless Tenterden has other claims' to recognition. Mr Champion's wife is, his deputy clerk of the peace —the one woman in England who holds such a position.