THE POLICE FORCE.
TnE novel feature of the Police Force Bill, which Mr Herdman has introduced in the House of Representatives, consists in the provision it contains whereby a member of the force is accorded the right of appeal against the result of any departmental inquiry into a charge against him of misconduct or insuoordination. The appeal will be considered by a Board, to be nominated by the Minister, consisting of a magistrate, an officer of, the force senior or equal in rank to the appellant, and some other person who shall not be a member of the force. After full inquiry the Board will submit its report to the Minister, who may thereupon make such order in the matter as he thinks fit. If, however, the Board
considers tho appeal to be frivolous or vexatious it may order the appellant to pay the costs.. The proposal, it will be seen, puts the members of the force in a mnch better position than they now occupy. It has, however, been already condemned by the New Zealand Times, which professes itself to be utterly at a loss to imagine what ideas of justice are behind a proposal which allows the Appeal Board to cast an appellant in costs in certain case 6 and enables the word of the Minister to prevail in the other cases. Tho ideas of justice expressed in this proposal are, of course, those which have found expression in the provisions of the Government Railways Act with reference to appeals by railway servants. Those provisions are not perfect; they dp not constitute the Appeal Board the final arbiter and, even though the argument that the Ministerial responsibility must be preserved is exceedingly powerful, this fact reveals an objection to them; bnt their existence certainly disposes of the contention of the New Zealand Times that there is anything " extraordinary," as it professes to believe, in the proposal of Mr Heidman to give effect to hi 6 undertaking that members of the police force shall have a right of appeal against the results of inquiries concerning their conduct.
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Bibliographic details
Otago Daily Times, Issue 15822, 22 July 1913, Page 4
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348THE POLICE FORCE. Otago Daily Times, Issue 15822, 22 July 1913, Page 4
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