POLICEMEN’S QUARTERS

Greymouth Evening Star, 29 May 1937, Page 2

POLICEMEN’S QUARTERS

BAD CONDITIONS AT DUNEDIN [PER PRESS ASSOCIATION.] DUNEDIN, May 28. “The police quarters in Auckland are like a palace compared with those in Dunedin,” a reporter of the "Otago Daily Tinies” was told to-day by a man who has had the experience of living in both. “The greatest objection to the single constable’s rooms in Dunedin is the excessive cold to which the men are subjected." he added, “and apart from that they are depressing in the extreme.” There are about IS single constables living at the Dunedin police station, and the rooms they are accomfnodated in are simply old prison cells, which have been converted to a certain extent for the purpose. The small high windows, which formerly allowed a little light to filter through to the prisoners, have been replaced by larger windows, but apart from that no material alteration has been made. The onus of improving their rooms is thrown on the constables, who may paint the brick walls if they want to. Most of them do this..Tney may introduce a little badly needed comfort by installing electric heaters. By the time a bed and a dressingtable have been placed in the cells, however, there is not a great deal of room for anything else, for these quarters are anything but spacious. The single men in Dunedin are quartered on two floors of a gaol building. They are provided with adequate bathing and showering facilities, and they have the benefit of an excellent hot water service which is a great improvement on conditions s6me years ago, when any hot water had to be carried. There is no provision for drying constables’ clothes, however, and, as in Auckland, they have to dry their uniforms and overcoats by hanging them over a balustrade.