SKIS FOR POLICE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23080, 4 July 1938, Page 14

SKIS FOR POLICE

THE VICTORIAN ALPS CONSTABLE'S EQUIPMENT BIG TERRITORY TO COVER [from oun OWN corkkkpondknt] MELBOURNE, Juno 2!) Tho prevention of crime and tho apprehension of law-breakers in Victoria has reached tho ultimate. Constable Loo ,T. Plior, stationed at ITarrietville, lias been issued with full ski-ing equipment. Thus he becomes Victoria's, and probably Australia's, first police constable on skis. Harrietvillo is right at the foothills of the Alps in the Ovens River Valley, in the shadow of tho precipitous Mounts Feathertop, St. Bernard and Hotham. The constable's enormous territory nominally covers almost the whole of tho north-eastern Alpine plateau and includes about 1000 square miles of the desolate Bogong and Dargo high plains. Tho highest peaks on his "beat" rise to 6500 feet above sea-level. Virtually tho whole Alpine area is under several feet of snow throughout the winter. Roads are not roads for five months of tho year, and snow poles are the only finger-posts. These are some of tho reasons why Constable Plier has taken to skis. Twice last winter the constable had to go into the Alps on special quests. There are huts on the high plains in which food is stored by tho ski clubs for tho winter, and, if those stores should bo interfered with by Alpine wanderers, skiers reaching the huts in a blizzard and with food supplies running low could be in a serious plight. The visiting population in the snow country is increasing each year, and the service's of Constable Plier, with so many snow enthusiasts wandering through tho Alps during tho winter, may be called upon at any moment in any typo of weather for any type of job. So ho has been issued with a fine pair of skis and a complete outfit of weather-proof clothing, while a packhorse is at his disposal.