The Hastings Standard Published Daily FRIDAY, SEPT. 3, 1897. THE POLICE FORCE.

Hastings Standard, Issue 416, 3 September 1897, Page 2

The Hastings Standard Published Daily

FRIDAY, SEPT. 3, 1897. THE POLICE FORCE.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrongs that need resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that we can do.

For some months past the disorganisation of the police force and the incompetence of its members have been plainly demonstrated. In Auckland the criminal element has successfully instituted a reign of terror, burglaries being of almost nightly occurrence; and in some cases attended by violence. The criminals have enjoyed their freedom, the hunt for them on the part of the police proving fruitless. So daring have the burglars become that the Aucklanders are wondering whether or not there does not exist a collusion between policeman and burglar. In certain cases of sly-grog selling reported recently ia the papers the principal witnesses have been spirited away, clearly showing that the police are either incapable of doing their duty or else they are not expected to do their work in the efficient manner that we know they can do it. During the short session held early in the year Mr T. Taylor asked the Minister of Justice if he would appoint a commission to inquire into the administration of the police force, giving as his reasons for asking the question the fact that the police were disorganised. The Minister however, repudiated the insinuation and flatly stated there would be no inquiry as he failed to observe anything wrong w T ith the force. No one who has watched the administration and working of the police force will, we think, feel disposed to defend the administration. It is faulty, somewhere. The average policeman is what the department makes him. He will do his duty fearlessly and honestly if he is supported as he ought to be by bis superior officers, but recently it appears as though the force existed for the exclusive benefit of the liquor interest. Breaches of the liquor laws do not come within the category of offences which a policeman should endeavor to expose, indeed a " bobby" that showed any zeal in this direction would stand a fair chance of dismissal. Even when flagrant cases demand attention, as in sly-grog selling, witnesses material to the prosecution vanish.

Apparently the reign of indirferenee, incompetency and partiality in the administration of the police department is to be brought to an abrupt termination, for according to the London correspondent of the Evening Post, ex-Inspector Tunbridge of Scotland Yard, together with two experienced detecfciv g have btea engaged by Mr

Seddon, and will shortly arrive in the colony. Mr Tunbridge will become Chief Commissioner of Police, a position he is well qualified to fill by reason of his long and varied experience with the Londou police ; in the executive portion of the work, too, his friends predict for him success. We do not know how far Mr Seddon was justified in making these Engagements without consulting Parliament, and it is not our purpose now to pursue, that aspect of the question. We are satisfied to know that a reorganisation of the police force will take place. We are glad that outsiders free from local prejudices have been selected for the work, and those who usually fulminate against Mr Seddon and charge him with stuffing the departments with his political friends will acknowledge that in this matter he has studied the interests of the colony. The present Commissioner of Police, Colonel Hume, never seemed fit for the work, or it may be that he has had too much to do, and this department suffered in consequence. He will probably be glad to be relieved of a department in the administration of which he has been unable to do himself or the force justice. The members of the police force will no doubt welcome the change, for the present system of administration must be irksome and disappointing to them. With three experts at the head of affairs the police departments ought soon to be brought into a state of thorough efficiency. If political influences are eliminated from the department, as we hope they will bo under Mr Tunbridge, then the best results will follow. It is to the meddlesomeness of politics that the decadence of the police force is due