PUDLis'IIJSD EVERT MYEMNG GIBBORNE, FRIDAY, JUNE 19, 1890.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7660, 19 June 1896, Page 2

Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING GISBORNE, FRIDAY, JUNE 19, 1890.

Riform of the police force is being urged by a number of our contemporaries, and aa the initiative has been taken by Ministerial organs such as the Lyttelton limes, New Zealand Times, and Wanganui Herald, there is reason to believe that the Government will pay some heed to the complaints which have been made. The recent sensational disclosures in connection with ex-detective Kirby have helped to draw public attention to the force, and shouldiead to enquiries as to its efficiency and integrity. In connection with Kirby's case, the Lyttelton Time 3 makes some sweeping assertions, saying that it is an astonishing thing that this man, whose unfitness (as it now seems) was widely known, was allowed to remain in a position of responsibility under the criminal law aud to carry on Mb nefarious practices unmolested. So notorious was the fact of his being accused of blackmailing Hermann, that it is said the boys of Wellington used to chaff him in the streets (in allusion to his having Hermann's gold watch) by calling to him, from a, safe distance, " What's the time ?" The Times states a Christchurch solicitor employed by Hermann submitted his client's complaint to the head of the Police Department, and requested that official to institute an enquiry. Colonel Hume, however, contented himself by obtaining an "explanation" and an "emphatio denial" from Kirby, and when on two or three subsequent oocaoions the solicitor urged the gravity of the charges and pointed out how their validity might be tested, he was politely informed that the department was " satisfied," and that there was nothing to prevent Hermann taking action on his own account. It was not until eight months after the first communication with the police department that the civil proceedings which were ultimately compromised, were commenced ; aud with reference to this compromise it is pointed out that there was very little encouragement for a private individual to undertake a prosecution that was passively resisted by the responsible department. The scandal is that it should have been possible for a man against whom such accusations were being bandied about to retain his position in the police force. " That he did retain it," says our contemporary, " aud that his removal from it has only been achieved as the result of outside pressure is to the lasting discredit of tho administration of justice in New Zealand." Another case requiring inquiry is mentioned by the Wairarapa Daily Times. In February last, during the hearing of a case in Masterton, counsel for tho defence asserted deliberately, aud with a sense of responsibility, that the chief officer of the police in the town had been guilty of conspiracy in a plot to entrap some youths into committing an orchard robbery. The Stipendiary Magistrate, in giving his decision in the case, remarked that this was,," a charge of the utmost gravity," aud, no added : " The proof of this allegation, for I he reasons given, I reject as iuelevant to the present case; but a charge so made ennnot rest where it is, but must be investigated in some way." " Yet," stiys tho local paper, " the charge so mude has rested, and is resting, and is likely to rest, although it is well known that it has officially been brought under the notice of the Inspector of Police, the Commissioner of Police, and the Minister of Justice." Furthermore, tho officer under accusation has been removed to another district and promoted. If other instances were wanted to prove that inquiry into and reform of the police force is needed, we would quote the Southland Times, in which the other day it was asserted that at Cromatty, a southern goldfields settlement, there are three sly-grog selling shanties, where drink is told publicly at all hours in defiance of the law. These places keep open all night, with the usual accompaniments of dancing, swearing and fighting. One of the shanties, it is stated, has been running over three years. As to how reform is to be effected we will not venture an opinion, but again quote our contemporaries. Thuß the Lyttelton Times : " We have hitherto held that the system was chiefly to blame, but we are now inclined to agree with the Oamaru Mail that the first essential is ' a new head,' and that ' the supervision of the force under a new system must be in the hands of an officer untrammelled by faulty traditions and free from any suspicion of boing swayed by personal feeling resulting from past associations with members of the force in any capacity.' We require our police officers, both in the preventive and detective branches, to be men of sterling honesty and uprightness."