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Sun (Christchurch), Volume III, Issue 882, 7 December 1916, Page 6

il It is not quite clear whether the i Dunedin people who are calling i 2 upon Mr Herdman to appoint 1 :1 women to the police force really || j want female police or female censors * lof morals. Provided that women are (physically lit for the work there is, | perhaps, no valid reason why, after la certain amount of training, they | ; should not be able to discharge the | duties of a policeman. Primarily | a policeman’s job is to preserve | order and apprehend persons who j break the law. In practice the j policeman is engaged in patrolling j the streets, serving summonses, | arresting drunkards, stopping fights, (recovering and taking charge of {dead bodies, regulating traffic, and (performing numberless other duties of a kind (hat are hardly suited to women no matter how willing they might be to undertake them. We doubt if any members of the Dunedin W.C.T.U. would be very keen i to join the police force on the ordinary conditions. What is really wanted appears to be something very different. At the meeting where ! the matter was discussed, a motion j was passed urging the appointment ! of “women protectors and advisers jof young women and children with ■ I the authority and standing of a jus’jtice of the peace.” These persons I I are to be authorised to attend courts, | and “intervene” in cases where 1: ‘ i women and children are concerned, j jit is a curious sort of request. It, ’I is the function of a J.P. to witness ! 1 1 signatures, sign informations laid j * by police constables, and sit on the I I j bench to try such cases as may | > come within his jurisdiction. The ■ 3 vagaries of J.P’s. are amazing, and 3 the rarity with which a judicial * mind is found in a woman makes! ■jit pretty certain that the appointment j 3 1 of female J.P’s will provide more " copy for the newspapers than it j 3 (would contribute to the efficient -iadministration of the law. It ■| should not be necessary to point out s I that the protector and adviser with s j the standing of a J.P., cannot be in " j the body of the Court and on the ■ | bench at the same time. The funcL ‘ j tions of pleader and judge cannot be I |so readily mixed as the worthy Duns edin ladies imagine. Further, there “iis nothing to prevent responsible e : women with a regard for the welsjfare of members of their sex who " may be brought before the Court, ■j from attending any police court pro- 1 e jceedings, and if necessary “inter- 1 * vening” to the extent of asking the j *, Magistrate for permission to make j v a statement. Magistrates being tj mostly sensible men, familiar with e every phase of human frailty, are e only too glad to find responsible ’’ citizens ready to lend a helping hand c to those in trouble, or to listen to II any suggestion which will assist >■ i them in disposing of a difficult case. > 1 If, as we suspect, it is desired to dj enrol a number of women charged d; with the duty of supervising the ii j movements and morals of young | i-j people who do not make the best o.use of the freedom allowed by their d | easy-going parents, the W.C.T.U. i- ; should hear in mind that the police Cjcan only act within the law. A ;e I skirted police officer can be given iV j no more power than one in breeches njto interfere with citizens who are it (not committing any legal offence, ii j and even if female police are apd i pointed, the W.C.T.U. would prob‘e ably find that it made very little i- difference either to the conduct of n individuals, or to the subsequent ie Court procedure in the event of If j lapses that resulted in their being n(brought before a Magistrate.