NEW COLONIAL POLICE.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 538, 3 August 1869, Page 2

NEW COLONIAL POLICE.

Mr St. John Branigan, Commissioner of Police, left Dunedin for Wellington last week. We believe that the Government wishes to take his opinion with reference to the remodelling of the Police Force. An outline of their views on this subject was given by Mr G-isborno, in his Ministerial Statement. He said:— We propose gradually, and so far as circumstances will permit, to substitute for the colonial standing army an armed police, which we think will be more economical and more efficient. There are, we think, obvious objections to the maintenance of a colonial standing army, and defects in it which materially neutralise its good eifects. We believe a more modest force, an armed police force, will not be open to these objections. We think we can impress upon such a force a character of permanctice, and we can make provision for the adequate reward of merit, and for cases of discharge after long service. Another advantage of this police force will be that it will be adapted to civil as well as military work, and that it may, ultimately, merge into the civil police force of the colony, and that the members of that force will be qualified, by their training aud discipline, to become good settlers, and hold offices of trust in other capacities. We have precedents in other colonies of armed police in a high state of discipline and efficiency, and I think we may follow that example with beneficial effects in New Zealand.