COMMISSIONER CULLEN

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVI, Issue 8184, 27 July 1912, Page 1

COMMISSIONER CULLEN

POLICE FORCE SANGUINE HOPES THAT GRIEVANCES WILL BE REDRESSED. SPECIAL TO THE "TIMES/* AUCKLAND, July 26. An officer of the local police force, who has a number of years of diligent and creditable service in the force behind him, was two or three days ago made glad by the news that he bad been selected" for promotion to higher rank, but his pleasure was somewhat dashed by the discovery that tho improvement in rank meant lor him a decrease of sixpence a day in pay.

All the surrounding circumstances go to show that the promotion iu rank was fully intended to be in the nature of a reward for merit, and that the officer has merely landed by accident in a crack in tho classification scheme of tho force. That, at any rate, was the view expressed by him to a “Star” representative when sounded on tho point. Ho was naturally rather reluctant to say anything at all on the matter, but he voiced an implicit trust that tho thing would ho made right in due course when it was observed in the place where these things are rectified. Apparently in the past, to redress some grievances which have been found to press hardly, the ranking scheme has been tinkered in spots without a careful readjustment of the whole, to make the addition fit smoothly in; lienee occasional flaws as that mentioned above.

It is, however, impossible to escape the hopeful note that breathes through tho utterances of all men in the service here, that the appointment of Commissioner Cullen ushers in the era when the departmental top of the ladder administration will always be in tho hands of a man who has been “ through the mill.” It is recognised that much has to be undone before his creative policy can he put into operation, hut all who have had experience of the Commissioner seem imbued with tho stout conviction that, once ho has settled fairly in the saddle and gathered up tho reins of office, he will do more to make the Police Department a desirable place for efficient men than any number of Royal Commissions could effect. .