The Wanganui Chronicle AND PATEA-RANGITIKEI ADVERTISER. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1902. HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR IS DUE.

Wanganui Chronicle, 27 February 1902, Page 2

The Wanganui Chronicle AND PATEA-RANGITIKEI ADVERTISER. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1902. HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR IS DUE.

The Police Force of New Zealand to-day is undoubtedly superior to the force a fewyears ago. In character, in intelligence, in efficiency, in physique, there has been a marked improvement of late years. The change has been wrought by ;;■ man who knows his business, :.nd the transformation has been so steadily evolved that the public have well nigh forgotten the original spectacle, and lost sight of the starting point of the new order. For the practical reorganisation of the force and the marked improvement in its personnel credit must of cour.se be given to Commissioner Tunbridge. Nevertheless it is not to that gentleman that the people of the colony are primarily indebted for the purification of the service upon the honesty and efficiency of which public peace and personal security so greatly depends. It was Mr. T> E. Taylor, ex-inember of the House of Representatives for Christehurch, who cleared the ground for Commissioner Tunbridge and made it possible for him to effect the much-needed reforms. The cele- \ brated Police Commission is now a thing j of the past. Its sensational exposures are by most people forgotten, or lemembered merely as among the ancient nine days' wonders which have ceased to have any interest. But the man who was mainly responsible for forcing that Commission into existence, the man who move than any other worked to make that Commission a means of lasting benefit to his. fellow colonists, was Mr. T. E. Taylor. Some there are who can recall his Herculean labours, how he collected valuable evidence in every part of the colony, and how manfully he faced and fought corruption and inefficiency wherever he found it. Few men, especially in the plain capacity of a private member, have rendered so great aservice to their fellows, and that, too, in the face of such popular prejudice and af the sacrifice of his health, his time, ami his pocket. "Tom 1' Taylor, for so is he best known throughout the colony, did not work for his own glorification, he did not seek to self-advertise himself into a. position of political notoriety, nor was ifc his fortune to have popularity thrust ii£)o» him because of an accidental appearance upon the high flood of a national patriotic movement. Incidentally mentioned in, a Press telegram the other day, the text of which was mainly devoted to the plans for the coming Prohibition campaign, was the fact that Mr. Taylor, physically broken down, was about to leave the colony in search of health. There is no talk of a national testimonial, no suggestion of any practical recognition of his valuable service. l! to the country. True, Mr. Taylor is not now a member of Parliament, and it is not the purpose of this aiticle to present a brief on his behalf. Still, his departure serves to give point to the old adage that "Nothing succeeds like success." On the one hand, there 5s a. man. holding high office, drawing a high salary, and going on the national free list to a high national festival, and upon this man —in the height of li:« political and personal prosperity—the country is asked to shower golden sovereigns simply because he happens to have been the representative head of a patriotic national demonstration. On the other hand, a wan, against whose personal character and puVic probity no: word can be said, leaves on & health- i seeking trip without so much as a, word; of public recognition or of thanks for the tireless and valuable work which he did for the people during his brief Parliamentary career. The contrast is certainly striking. An the "Standard" fightly asksv "What public service should call forth greater recognition than the purification of the force to which the general public

is indebted for the preservation of the

peace?" Aj)d yet the man mainly responsible for the great improvement in the condition of things—iadeed, the man who made the alteration possible—departs from the colony on a trip for the benefit of his health, broken down in the servieve of the public, with hardly a- word of encouragement, except from a f-mall coterie of personal- friends who do not belwu; to tho class lie has done most, for. And U\ answer to the question "Why is this?" our M'ftnawat-u contemporary says: "Simply because Mr. Taylor did not- work for tho benefit of a moneyed class, beeaui-e he did not shout 'Kule Uritannia,7 while he was filling the pockets of his relatives and

friends and admirer* with fat contracts

simply because he looked upon the public nurse us a sacredi trui-t, and did not endeavour to profit by the accommodating

-)i;.scicnce of the public in regard to its

f-ontenis, and perhaps mostly because he is a. teetotaller and held the cardinal belief that, there is more degradation and mure misery involved in the liquor traffic than all the rest of the evils in existence put together. Hh-.I he been on the other c?e we iirnily believe tlrng,' would have

•en different. Why it i.s in evidence that

a member of Parliament may lie ax diunken and despicable an object as it is possible to meet, in a day's ;»i:irch. but if lie is

only ;i supporter of Hut %uor nMX |,j s Nual

fl is as safe a>i a lioum'. if j.s- a sm\ nun js mentary upon (he-iuJluence .ol' «r.-ymy that p such things should-lie, and iv<= regret to; say we see but little-hope .of j political,! regeneration in the near future in these re-j spects." The many-personal friends of Mr. Taylor, and the; many wl-n h;tve re- | gaiilcd him as a follow «<.,ikcr in {\ K i t . m . .) jierauce crusade, will siiicoiely hope that ; the feailes.-' fighter will soon regain his health and strength, and that hi- will <k a.ble to return and spend aiwjiy y-jyrs io ilie sphere of active public .'<«]vice.