H.—l6b.

the good offices of no less than three members of Parliament to assist him to secure promotion to the rank of sergeant. He told in mournful tones, and apparently making somewhat of a grievance of it, that it had done him no good. At any rate, he is still a constable, and likely to remain so. A constable told me lately on oath that he was informed by one high in authority that the reason he had not been advanced was that he had not enough friends in high places. One can scarcely believe that the constable heard aright, but, still, it shows the feeling. A member of Parliament must necessarily be accessible to all his constituents, and policemen have votes. This seems to me to sum up the position. It is, however, a fact that a man, simply because he has a vote, considers that he has an absolute claim upon his member to advance his interests if called upon. Every self-respecting man resents such a position. As two members recently remarked to me, " The average member is regarded by his constituents either as a sort of general agent to carry out their behests, or else as a walking labour Bureau, to get billets for all and sundry." Mr. C. H. Poole, M.P., in giving evidence at Auckland, remarked that the appeal to political influence is becoming commonplace in this country. Day by day and week by week members of Parliament have matters relating to different Departments brought under their notice. Sometimes they are approached by people who have grievances which ought to be redressed, and others are looking for particular political favours. With " influence "so prevalent it would, he said, be phenomenal if the Police Force escaped. He went on to say that political influence is rife all through the country, and he dealt with the duty of the Administration. (Page 316 of the evidence.) After all, what is the remedy ? The true remedy must lie in the personal quality of those directly responsible for the efficiency of the Force. If the Minister and the Commissioner are strong men, they can always resist any outside pressure to induce any act that is not in the truest interests of the whole of the Force. The only other influences mentioned during the course of the inquiry have been Masonic and religious. There is absolutely no ground whatever for even the suggestion of any effect on the Force from either of these sources. Under the guise of giving evidence on the question of political influence, a disrated detective, doing duty as a constable in Invercargill, made a most serious accusation against Mr. G. Laurenson, M.P. The statement, when being made, appeared to me so improbable and extraordinary that I warned the constable of the effect of what he was saying, and suggested that he should be careful. He, however, persisted in asserting the truth of what he said. I then caused a copy of his statement to be furnished to Mr. Laurenson, and ultimately, at the latter's request, the constable attended at the sitting at Christchurch so that the merits of the charge might be dealt with. But at this sitting, Mr. Laurenson being present, the constable practically withdrew the statement made in Invercargill, and said that he had not thoroughly understood the effect of what he said, and certainly did not mean what every one thought he meant. Mr. Laurenson gave evidence on oath denying the allegation, and the incident ended. lam quite convinced that the constable knew full well the effect of what he was saying, and I am equally convinced that there was not a shadow of truth in the abominable accusation that he made. The man had actually been promoted after leaving Lyttelton, and the disrating affair had admittedly nothing to do with Mr. Laurenson. " As to the methods of promotion of members of the Force, and the reasons governing the selection of members of the Force for promotion." There is no doubt whatever that there is a very strong feeling of discontent and dissatisfaction throughout the Force with regard to the manner in which certain constables have been promoted to be sergeants. The evidence fairly teems with instances illustrating this discontent, given by witnesses all over New Zealand. A grreat deal of this discontent and dissatisfaction is, in my opinion, entirely well founded, and T think I can show conclusive evidence of it. Of course, in any Force, however constituted, there is always bound to be a very great deal of dissatisfaction on the subject of promotions. Men always

XXXI