H.—4.

1885. NEW ZEALAND.

NEW ZEALAND CONSTABULARY (ANNUAL REPORT ON).

Presented to both Houses of the General Assembly by Command of His Excellency.

Lieut.-Colonel Reader to the Hon. the Defence Ministee. S IB; Commissioner's Office, Wellington, 26th June, 1885. In submitting to you a report, with statistics, of the Constabulary force for the year ending the 31st March, 1885, the Police branch shows a strength on that date of 474 —not including 24 Native and 10 District constables, at reduced salaries ranging from £10 to £100 per annum — being an increase of nine on the previous year; while the Field force shows a decrease during the same period of 105. New stations have been established at Ormondville (Hawke's Bay District), Paikakariki and Clyde Quay (Wellington District), Fairlie Creek (Timaru District), Woolston (Christchurch District), and Nenthorn (Dunedin District); and others re-opened at Shortland (Auckland District), Ormond and Waipukarau (Hawke's Bay District), and Eavensbourne (Dunedin District); besides an additional constable granted to Wellington and Waitara stations. The stations at Makatoku, Porirua, and Albury, in the Hawke's Bay, Wellington, and Timaru Districts respectively have been closed. The casualties in the Police branch amount to 20, as against 44 in the previous year, made up as follows: Resignations 7, discharges 8 (one of which was on compensation, and one for medical unfitness), dismissals 3, and by deaths 2. By the criminal statistics attached a decrease of minor offences in the North Island to the extent of 251, and in the South Island of 241, is shown ; and with regard to drunkenness, increases in the Provincial Districts of Wellington, Auckland, Westland, and Nelson of 44, 63, 69, and 8 are noticeable ; while Canterbury, Otago, Hawke's Bay, and Taranaki show decreases to the extent of 320, 128, 140, and 17 respectively. I have given below the proportion of police to population, and cost per inhabitant, of this and the adjoining colonies, which shows the comparison favourable to New Zealand. The general conduct of the members of the force has been very satisfactory, and the zeal displayed by both officers and men, not only in the discharge of their ordinary duties, but in connection with various others, such as census enumerators, collectors of agricultural statistics, Customs officers at inland stations, licensing officers under the Arms Act (now confined to the North Island), Inspectors of Weights and Measures, and gaolers at police prisons, besides assisting in administering charitable aid, reporting on the estates of lunatics and deceased persons, the circumstances of persons having children in the industrial schools, assisting in compiling jury lists, and in the revision of electoral rolls, &c, has been most creditable. Three most important arrests have been made during the year for offences committed out of the colony—viz., at Wellington, that of Alexander Forsyth Anderson, for embezzlement at Liverpool ; of William Sheehan, at Auckland, accused of murder in Ireland; and of W. H. Lennox Maxwell, also at Auckland, accused of a similar offence in the United States : while a recovery of £1,100 was made from the wife of a fraudulent bankrupt, named Townsend, on her arrival in the colony from England without her husband, his arrest having been effected as he was attempting to accompany her. Agreeably to your instructions the whole of the Constabulary out-stations in the TaupoTauranga Districts, with the exception of Wairoa, were closed, and the men assembled at Taupo for roadwork at Tokano. In March the Parihaka station was closed, and the men transferred to Opunake. With the exception of a few required for garrisoning the several posts, the members of the Field force retained have been employed in the formation of roads in the Waikato, Taupo, and West Coast Districts. Since the 31st March they have been withdrawn from roadwork, for training in garrison gun-drill, torpedo instruction, and the formation of earthworks in connection with the defences at the principal ports, necessitating an aiigmentation to the force of fifty men, who were taken on at the reduced rate of pay of ss. a day. I—H. 4.