Miscellaneous Information.

New Zealand Police Gazette, Volume XXVII, Issue 12, 3 June 1903, Page 143

Miscellaneous Information.

Rewards

Constable L. J. Cookery, No. 869, has been advanced one year in seniority, and has also received the Royal Humane Society’s silver medal and certificate of merit “ on vellum,” in recognition of his act of bravery in rescuing Richard Paltridge from drowning, at Wellington, on 6th September, 1902. (03/907.)

Sergeant T. King, No. 244, and Constable J. McLeod, No. 775, Oamaru police, have been awarded £3 and £2 respectively for services in obtaining a conviction for sly-grog selling. (03/902.)

Inquiries re Old-age Pensioners,

(Circular No. 17/03. It having been brought under my notice by the Registrar of the Old-age Pensions Department that considerable expenditure is being incurred by police in outlying districts in connection with the reports on Forms E and J required by his Department, I desire it to be clearly understood that such reports must be furnished with as little cost as possible. Applicants are required to appear before the Stipendiary Magistrate for personal examination at each application, and a personal interview is therefore in a great number of cases unnecessary. Information to be of any value should be procured outside the pensioner’s own statements. As a period of twelve months elapses between each successive application, there is ample time in which to collect the information asked for each year, and it ought to be possible to procure this when the officer is covering his district on police duty. When it is absolutely necessary that expenditure be incurred on account of old-age pensions business, the authority of the Registrar to incur such expenditure must be first obtained through the Deputy Registrar. Please note the following extract from the regulations of the Old-age Pensions Department : “ 60. It shall be the duty of members of the Police Force, in addition to assisting claimants in the preparation and investigation of their pension 'claims and income and property statements, to render such service as the Department may require. Any such officer, where he is not the Deputy Registrar himself, if he has reason to believe that any pensioner is drawing a pension to which by law he is not entitled, or mispends his pension in drink, shall inform the Deputy Registrar of the district in which the said pension is registered of his reason for so thinking; and, likewise, where it is within the knowledge of any such officer that a pensioner has been continuously employed for a period of three months by the one employer he shall so inform the Deputy Registrar, and supply the name and address of such, employer. The Deputy Registrar shall in all such cases take action as provided in these regulations.” J. B. Tunbridge, Ist June, 1903. Commissioner of Police. (03/1001.)