THE POLICE FORCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10422, 21 April 1897, Page 6

THE POLICE FORCE.

10 THE EDITOR. Sib,—Recent paragraphs in the newspapers announce the Hon. Thomas Thompson is fairly well satisfied with the police force, and does not kuow of any cause for inquiry. I think the proportion of Roman Catholics to Protestants in the colony is about one Uatholii! to seven Protestants. Now sir, of the constables in Auckland barracks at the present time the proportion is something like nine Catholics to one Protestant. Say, 30 Catholics to three Protestants, and the statement will not be far wide of the fact. Why, even the sensational preponderance of Protestant patronage in Sassenach ridden Ireland, so graphically described by Messrs Davitt and Blake not long ago (both had evidently learned from the same text-book so alike were their statements), pales into insigiiificence compared with the figures just given. As regards the police force, at anyrate Protestantism is penal and " no English need apply." Ido not allege there hag been any intrigue on the part of certain Roman Catholics to pack the force with members of that creed, I simply say " look at my litres and judge for yourselves." One thing is certain, that no body, admission to which depended, not upon merit, but upon the influence of some religious sect, or cabal, or political partizanship, could be expected to be efficient or command public confidence The wider the range of choice, the greater the chances of obtaining satisfactory recruits for the force.—l am, etc., Thirty- years' Colonist.