THAT SILENT POLICEMAN

Te Aroha News, Volume XLI, Issue 6602, 21 May 1925, Page 4

THAT SILENT POLICEMAN

(To the Editor.) Sir, —Do you think it fair for “Man in the Street” to jeer at our one and only silent policeman who stands shivering all day, naked and unashamed, at the intersection of Kenrick and Whitaker Streets? I admit he would look better in uniform—as most policemen do—but after earnest search I see no exhibition of fourlegged pantaloons in the windows of this metropolis. After all he does his job by silently suggesting to chariots and horsemen the better way to avoid danger. You know, it is so easy for motorists to drive carelessly and recklessly on any side of the street that they often prefer their own self-taught methods. Such a lot of people, too, prefer sauntering across thoroughfares or standing in groups about Firkin’s fashionable corner that they obviously prefer the chance of sudden and violent death to the usual- humdrum indoor ending. All these record breakers and brainy burgesses must be considered, and they would naturally resent being addressed on such a silly subject as Folly by a living peeler or a mere Borough employee. After all they have that perfect right to court danger which is esteemed one of the noblest characteristics of the British race. Why should a mealy-mouthed man in the street deny this right to them? I have casually noticed that on Te Aroha’s quietest days—days when the Turf and Tote are the ics of all true men and women—thd Borough Council and the polite police take a firm hand in denying to the aforesaid their usual rights and privileges, with the result that quite a number of pedestrians are preserved from peril and many a mischievous motor makes a modified movement to the left. So be it; let the people scoff at the menace of mortality, let the road-hog rejoice that he rejects the rules of the road, but don’t, let-anyone-chain up that cool, cast-iron constable for SAFETY’S SAKE.