COMMISSIONER TUNBRIDGE.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume IX, Issue 675, 12 February 1903, Page 20

COMMISSIONER TUNBRIDGE.

The newspapers are by no means unanimous on the subject of Mr. Tunbridge’s retirement. The “ Napier Herald ” thinks the Colony will be able to get along very well without him, as the real authorsi of the reforms for which . that officer has been given the credit will remain active after he has gone. These, we are assured are Mr. T. Taylor, M.H.R:, “and those who were working with him.” Of course, we might have expected this. Everything that makes for the good of the race and the uplifting of humanity in general, comes from the Prohibition Party. It is to be eternally deplored that the Party oame so late into our history. There is no telling what the British Empire might have become if Alfred the Great, the Con-

queror. the Lion Heart, the Black Prince, Harry the Fifth, Elithebelt, Cromwell, William of Orange, Marlborough, the Pitts, Wellington, and Nelson, had been leading members of the teetotal crusade ! Our own opinion is, that our relations with India would have been reversed, and that the Great Mogul would by this time be laving down the law in London or Winchester. This by tile way. The . Napier evening journal says the retiring ■Commissioner, during his tenure of office, “ made one very good proposal, and iterated it time after time.. It was that in order to simplify licensing law, licensed bars should be closed to all when closed to the general public.” “ The Government,” pursues the writer, “ m our opinion, would have done well to adopt this suggestion.” The Government had too much sense. The law as.it stands> is admirably calculated to disgust people who come to our shores in search of change of scene, of health, and .of pleasure ; also it is sufficiently stringent to tempt those innately honest to break it upon occasions. If this suggestion was the best that Commissioner Tunbridge had to offer we agree with the “ Telegraph ” that his departure will not be a national disaster. It is singular, and worthy of remark,. that Mr Tunbridge s resignation is invariably spoken of in connection with the licensing law. We should like to be informed concerning his share in the diminution of crime, for instance. Has the re-organisation of the police force reduced the number of felonies ? The raison d’etre of the police is the protection of the citizen, his life, limb, and property. In New Zealand the chief end of the policeman appears to be to watch the hotels and to run, in persons who take a pint or two in excess of their carrying capacity.