H.—2B

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the training of a soldier tends to give him a want of sympathy with civic surroundings, and makes him harsh and unbending ; but such remarks do not apply, as far as can be seen, to our colonial soldiers, and it must be recollected that the Royal Irish Constabulary, which is admitted to be one of the very best Police Forces there are, receives, as recruits on first entering the Force, a purely military training. 7. I stated last year that the New Zealand Police Force labours sorely under two great disadvantages—the want of a superannuation scheme, and, as a consequence thereof, and a result therefrom, tardiness of promotion. It was thought that this might to some extent be overcome by promoting to second class all third-class constables on their completing seven years' service with clean defaulter-sheets ; but if this were carried out the second class would be very soon in excess of the numbers provided for by the estimates, and a very serious injustice would be done to some forty now at the head of the list of the third class, who, perhaps, have two or three trivial offences recorded against them, but who, in consequence of these two or three offences, could never be advanced, and would be daily seeing their juniors promoted over their heads. After giving these matters a great deal of serious consideration, I framed a scheme by which increases of pay would be given by length of service, all other things being equal, and if this scheme is adopted I believe it will give general satisfaction throughout the Force, as a man on entering would know, if his conduct and ability gave satisfaction, what exact rate of pay he would be on ten or twelve years hence. If the proposed scheme for advancement is not adopted, I would suggest, in all fairness to the forty constables already referred to as at the top of the third-class list and to many others, that a continuous service of, say, five years without an entry against them should wipe out any previous record of misconduct, and so place them in a position that will prevent the constant supersession by their juniors on account of irregularities committed many years ago. To carry out efficiently the proposed scheme it will be necessary to have only four classes of rank—viz., Inspectors, sergeants, constables, and detectives, and for these ranks only provision has been made in the proposals now before the Government. At the present time we have no less than thirteen different ranks in a force of less than five hundred men. 9. Perhaps the most important duties this department have to deal with is the administration and the enforcement of the laws relating to the drink traffic, gambling, the social evil, and larrikinism; but some are beset with difficulties and legal technicalities which are almost insurmountable, and directly there is any failure the Police are alone blamed. If a member of the Force is moved, the transfer is attributed to the influence of the publicans and brewers, or the Prohibitionists, and one or other of these associations has a grievance ; but to give the credit to the department for honesty in carrying out the transfer in the interests of the service is not for a moment considered. Whenever it is discovered that, beyond a doubt, the liquor-laws are not being carried out, or that offences generally are rife, in any particular locality, such removals as the head of the department may deem necessary, regardless of the length of time any one concerned may have been stationed in the district, should be forthwith carried out, irrespective of protests from any particular section of the community, and, if any sinister motives can be proved against the head of the department, then, and not till then, should his orders be interfered with by influential local interested persons or any one else. 10. In commenting on this liquor question a great deal is said about the Force being reorganized, but I boldly assert that, as long as the liquor-laws remain as at present, no organization could possibly successfully grapple with the question. What is required is that clause 25 of " The Imperial Licensing Act, 1872," in toto, should be on the statute-book of the colony, instead of merely the last few lines of that clause, as at present. Then there should be a proper definition of what a " bar " is, only one bar should be allowed, and no liquor should be allowed to be sold or exposed for sale except in the bar. Then, again, travellers should cease to be such after visiting the first hotel they enter after arriving in town. As the law now stands, a traveller can obtain liquor at every licensed house in a town during prohibited hours without committing any breach of the law. In support of the statement that special attention has been given to these matters during the past year, it will be seen by a reference to the criminal statistics given in this report that decreases in the crimes of drunkenness amount to 657, and of sly grog-selling twenty-one. If the law is only amended in the directions indicated, it will be found that the Police as at present organized are quite capable and ready to carry out workable laws. The suppression of gambling has also received considerable attention during the past year, while the social evil and larrikin pests have been considerably lessened since the introduction of the Criminal Code Act. To deal effectually with the larrikin nuisance, as pointed out by Inspector Broham in his report attached, the Police require extended powers, to enable them to at once arrest persons who block the streets or footpaths and refuse to move on when ordered by the Police to do so. At present proceedings can only be taken by summons, a cumbrous and unsatisfactory plan, which leads often to the erroneous belief that the Police show apathy in dealing with this pest. 11. In addition to the police duties proper performed by the Force during the past year, I cannot omit mentioning the meritorious services rendered by Sergeant Gamble and six speciallyselected constables from Auckland at the Great Barrier Island, in connection with the wreck of the steamship " Wairarapa," under most trying circumstances. The party left Auckland on Ist November last, and were employed on this special duty till 21st of that month, and during that interval they succeeded in recovering the mails—for which they were rewarded and thanked by the Postal Department—and, with the assistance of the Maoris living on the island, were enabled to recover and bury some sixty-three bodies, taking accurate descriptions in each case; and in many instances bodies already buried by the Maoris had to be exhumed to get descriptions and any valuables they might have, which, to the credit of the Natives be it said, were not interfered with; and, as an illustration of their honesty, it may be noticed that in the case of one body which the Maoris had buried fifteen sovereigns were found on its being exhumed by