POLICE CONTROL

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 3, Issue 279, 5 March 1941, Page 4

POLICE CONTROL

—_ ' | Sir, —What has taken our County Councillors'? A condition Avhich has been "en eA r idence" for years has sud denly raised their ire. A correspondent "Fed Up" has attacked the officers of the IaAV, Avell knoAA'ing that no reply can come from they Avho he has assailed. Correspondence of this nature is nothing but a big round O. One is reminded, on reading some of the effusions, of the remark made by Disraeli to Gladstone in the House of Commons: The Honourable Member is intoxicated AA'ith the exuberance of his verbosity. Noav let us calmly revicAV the position. The liquor traffic is one of the biggest sources of revenue that the Government has, and from the Government, the Whakatane County Council gets the portion that falls to it. The members of the council are jnst as responsible for the. existence of the traffic (unknowingly perhaps) as is every other elector. Having created Avliat Miey term an evil, they complain that the men paid to stem are evil are'not doing the job. Noav sir. they expect the Sergeant and his Constables to be moral Hercules, qlso to dance to their tune, Avhile they (unknowingly perhaps) re create the trouble by perpetuating the traffic. All the Avhile. the Police are making strenuous efforts to clean the district and bring order out of the alcoholic chaos. I have lived in the King Country and in many other parts of Ncav Zealand and Whakatane compares very fa\ r ourably. The hotels are the cleanest one has seen. It is not a crime to make o 'noise provided no inconvenience is occasioned. The Maoris are good liumouredly roAA r dy but is that an infringement of the laAA r ? And the Police themselves, Avlien on street duty are immaculately uni-" formed, I know for I have tailored for many years. Does Councillor McGready that the police Avork 'very long hours. While he is in his comfortable bed, the police are out in all AA'eathers, trying to restrain the victims of the evil, perpetuated as much by the vote of the mcmbcrs'of the County Council, as by any other elector. I have had much experience Avith the present officers, and have always received most courteous treatment. The police have always been most careful to do what they possibly could do. And 1 think I can produce much -evidence to verify this. And here the attitude of the religious bodies becomes one of isolation. Let the Church keep distinct and separate. And it is the duly of the State and its officers also to confine the control of the matter to the State. It is doubtful whether the County members are right in the attitude they have taken. Just the reverse to what Councillor McGready has stated, the concensus of opinion is that the Sergeant does his duty, and in the doing has promulgated a wave of high esteem and respect. To him, and to his' Constables one is constrained to say: A man's first care is to avoid the reproaches of his own heart, next to avoid the erasures of the world, if the latter interferes with the former, it should be entirely neglected. Yours etc., CHAS JOHN NORRIES.