POLICE COMMISSION.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XLIX, Issue 12551, 14 July 1905, Page 5

POLICE COMMISSION.

Per Press Association,

DUNEDIN, July 13. The Police Commission resumed its sitting this morning. Sergeant, Ryan said that vlion t!.o robbery was committed at Liie D.I C hd found that Mosos was off hb u»at for 40 minutes. The beats were too largo for a sergeant to visit the men thieo times in one night, and he suggested tho cutting up of the section into two, with a sergeant in charge of each.

Chief Detective Herbert said that the beats were too large for the sergeants to havo 'proper control. The city should bo cut up into three sections, with a sergeant in charge of each, and there should be an extra sub-inspector for night duty. The Police Commission resumed this morning and took the evidence of Sergt... Ryan, who was in charge of the relief on two occasions when robberies occurred at the D.I.C. On one of these occasions he found Moses off his beat for 40 minutes, and reported him for it. He always took McDonald foor a straightforward man. , Chief Detective Herbert considered that everything possible had been done by th<v authorities in connection with the robberies. He thought the- area supervised by the Sergeants in Dimedin too large, and thiat it should be out up into three sections. Firom information now in the possession of the police, robberies (had been going on for four or five years. They started in a small way, and gradually grew. He disapproved of .appoint, ing defectors of'sly-grog selling to the police force. ."Sergeant Ramsay complained that in /Duneain a Sergeant had to galop (round aU'Jnjght if the men were to be- looked afte* properly. .■■".-.. . .'Hhe evidence of Moses was taken at thVgaol, <and he said the working of the beats in Dunedin was like clockwork. Tlhey koiew when to expect the Sergeant. Thieving had been going on for a considerable time prior to his arrival: Surprise visits by tibe Sergeants would certainly have curtailed the thefts. Witness had not been offered any rewiard for making the statements. He was looked on ias the black slteeg of the force, and waited to clear iMßnseTf.

James McDonald., also tinder sentence, stated Others wecne \ implicated besides Moses. Osborae and himself. The articles wef© taken, a few at a time. He believed the thefts were going, on for three or four years before (he arrived 'here. It- was a -private individual -who first introduced the subject 'to Mm. He believed these things were going on in other towns. He had Itoeard it was goinn on in Christchuroh, Oamaru, Timaru. and Auckland. The Commission sits again to-morrow.