POLICE FORCE

Southland Times, Issue 25305, 7 June 1935, Page 7

POLICE FORCE

STANDARD OF RECRUITS. STATEMENT BY COMMISSIONER. (Per United Press Association.) Wellington, June 6. It has been the practice of the New Zealand Police Department during the last two years to require that recruits joining the force shall have attained at least the sixth standard of a primary school education. Before that the fifth standard was all that was deemed necessary. The result, said the Commissioner, Mr Wohlmanri, to-day, had been that a very fine type of young man had been offering and appointed. Within two years between 60 and 80 young men, all fulfilling the exacting physical and higher educational standard, had been recruited by the force. A number had attended high school or even a University College for a period. Asked whether men’ of the college type were enlisting because the professional avenues in which they would ordinarily move were closed by economic circumstances, Mr Wohlmann agreed that in some cases this might be so. He had found, however, that the majority of those who had enjoyed a college education and who had been accepted by the Department had chosen the force as a career because they were confident of rising high in the service of the Department.