Untitled

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVIII, Issue 5997, 5 February 1881, Page 4

An" informer is a public abhorrence, aud the proceedings at tho Police Court yesterday will not diminish the disfavour with which lie is regarded. He is usually a man devoid of any character except a bad one, for the simple reason that honest men scorn so mean a trade. Men of this kind are the only tools arailablo to the police, but so long as they employ them sly grog-selling is not likely to be successful, and public sympathy is sure to incline to the man who, though an offender against the law, is likely to become the victim of wholesale perjury. In three charges of sly heard in the Police Court yesterday there were two convictions and a dismissal. Tin's last was that of a case against Henry Leon, of the Working Men's Club, Sreat North Road, of selling two glasses of beer, and had the police been as hard swearers as the informers Haynian aud Blake, the defendant would have had a bad time of it. They swore that they had had no communication with the police on the subject, and these snore that the whole thing was arranged. Under these circumstances, the Police Magistrate could do no less than dismiss the ease. Sly giog-selling is the worst possible form of the sale of intoxicating liquors, and, in the interests of tho authorised trader and those of the public, it is most important it should be suppressed ; but it is indefensible that the police should have recourse to such tools as they were compelled to discredit yesterday. The law cannot be, and should not be, vindicated in this way, and it should nob be tolerated. The police must be required to find some other means of enforcing the law. It is requisite that it should bo upheld ; it would be a blessing if there was no such thing as the sale oE intoxicants—the greatest curse from which English communities suffer. But everything must be done in order, and on the broad basis of justice. We have no desire to discourage the police in the discharge of a difficult duty, and they deserve credit for having secured two convictions : but they must not be permitted to imperil justice by enlisting the services of men ready to swear up to anything dictated by the necessities of the case. The charge brought against Mr. Leon may not, however, be unattended with advantage.