Need for More Police.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXX, Issue XXVI, 27 June 1903, Page 1824

Need for More Police.

The city police force is in need of more men, and the intention of Mr C. J. Parr to move that the City Council take action in this matter calls to mind the fact that a new police station for the Ponsonby and Newton district is an equally urgent necessity. A few months ago the City Council leased to the Police Department some plots of land on Ponsonby-road near the Reservoir, and close to the Unitarian Chureh. The Department intends to build a commodious station on the site for the accommodation of a large number of unmarried constables, but, as far as we. can ascertain, matters are not in a very, advanced condition, although there is a very pressing need for the building. Ponsonby, Newton, and Grey Lynn have grown to be such extensive and thicklypopulated districts that the police arrangements, which did not keep pace with the extensions, are quite inadequate. The old Newton police station in West-street cannot be extended, as there is no room, and it absolutely fails to properly meet the necessities of police work. Ponsonby Station in Jervoisroad. lias been made more useful by the addition of another storey to the brick building, thus enabling several rooms previously’ cccupied by the married officer in charge to be utilised by the police and public. The alterations have just been completed, and the station is now large enough to cope with the requirements of the neighbourhood, but the officers there and at Newton have to cover a district which is much too unwieldy, and there is an imperative necessity both for an increase in the r.umerical strength of the force and the provision of the new station near the Reservoir.