THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES THURSDAY, MAY 20, 1948 CONTEMPT OF THE LAW

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26776, 20 May 1948, Page 4

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES THURSDAY, MAY 20, 1948 CONTEMPT OF THE LAW

The facetious remark is sometimes made that the West Coast is a law unto itself, the inference being that a benevolent and strictly local interpretation should be given to happenings there which, in other parts of New Zealand, might occasion more than passing interest. In our news columns yesterday, however, there appeared a report that had a particular significance to New Zealand as a whole. A message from Greymouth described the resentment that was expressed by waterside workers at the presence of a police constable at the scene of unloading operations, and their subsequent withdrawal from one hold of the vessel until the shipping company, acting on a recommendation from the union, requested that he be withdrawn. Thus, contemptuously, was the law dismissed, and for the ignominious manner of its dismissal it would be difficult to apportion fairly the responsibility, to determine whether the greatest measure of blame should rest with the men, the company, or the local police who apparently acquiesced in this denial of their functions. In our message the seemingly sound conjecture was made that the constable had been stationed in his position as a sequel to the recent discovery of pillaged goods in waterside workers’ homes and the arrest of three men. It is logical to assume, therefore, that good reason existed for the presence of a constable, a much better reason than that put forward as an argument to have him removed. The secretary of the Greymouth Watersiders’ Union has stated that the workers •“ had registered an emphatid protest at being regarded as potential criminals, and if there was a repetition [of such action by the police] the union would certainly take the matter further.” His argument is not only a bad one. it is unsound. The crime of pillaging is known to be rife. Not all of it occurs on the New Zealand coast,' but there is ample evidence in recent police court records to prove conclusively that some of the workers at various ports in the Dominion are deliberately despoiling the cargoes they handle. This minority consists of common thieves, men who attempt to outwit the law and to deprive others of commodities essential for the progress of normal business activities. By their depredations they make suspect all among • whom they work, and it would not be thought that honest men would resent the" efforts of the authorities to trap the offenders. Any union of workers should, indeed, be eager to co-operate to the utmost in removing the suspicion that must necessarily be general while a few rogues within its ranks continue to rob the public. Obstruction of any nature to the police in the course of their investigations must, on the other hand, arouse grave doubts in the public mind as to the sincerity of a union’s attitude towards society in general. The incident at Greymouth is not the first in which hostility has been shown towards jpolice officers engaged in investigations on the waterfront, nor the first in which the law has been brought into contempt. And the fact that authority can be so deliberately flouted is only one of the perturbing aspects of a trend that has already earned for New Zealand a reputation for industrial lawlessness that extends far beyond its shores. ,