THE POLICE FORCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10424, 23 April 1897, Page 3

THE POLICE FORCE.

IUU i vuiuu viivui TO THE EDITOR. Sir,— have no desire to prolong the correspondence ob this subject, my object being served by the publicity you gave to the substantially incontrovertible figures contained in my letter. Of course I expected to find the old " gag" of religious intolerance trotted out by those who could not refute my statement, however desirous of doing so. Your correspondent of this morning cannot be up-to-date in his knowledge of the force, for only a few weeks ago the press teemed with complaints about the inefficiency of the police. My object in showing that in Auckland barracks there are only three Protestants to thirty Catholics, although the proportion of each in the population of the colony is about one Catholic to seven Protestants, was to indicate a possible cause for inefficiency. To the unsophisticated Protestant mind it seems unlikely that such an enormous difference would exist between the number of the denominations employed and their ratio of the population unless some influence were operating in favour of the Catholics. Strange it is if a larger number of fit Protestants do not apply fcr employment in the police. Satisfied with directing attention to the matter, I shall not trouble you again, but conclude with urging that the field for selection be rendered as wide as possible.— am, etc., , Thirty Years' Colonist.