POLICE COMMISSION.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 564, 20 July 1909, Page 6

POLICE COMMISSION.

DUMEDIN SITTINGS ENDED. (IJy Toleeraph.-Prcßa Amedatloti.) ■'. ' " ■ July. 19. At thia rooming's sittiag. of the; Police Commission tho principal witness .was SubInspecfcftr Phair, who.said lie never heard a hint that Mr. Wright, chief clerk in the ComTnieftJonfrr'o office, Was tho reel, Commissioner. Witness did not know of' any general disconk'nt in the force; he had not heard of it.;Ho tllought the pay and gcncrg.l conditions of theforco should bo .improved so as to attract tho liftst typo of recruits; also that tho polioo RhonW b<! relieved of education inquiries. Kn'dfince was also given by a'number of sergeants, and by Mr. agont for fJie i'atknts' and Prisonora 1 ' Aid Society. Th<j commission ha» now finished its sittings ami hae adjourned to sit' at Oa'tnaru on WotltKiSfJay, , . [The education inauirics of which SubInr.pftctor Phair speaks aro in respect' of : esinmates of the industrial schools, which are. under tho Edncation Department. A large nnrnhier of industrial school inmates aro sent to tho schools from the Police Court, and aftor tbft inmates leave the school to take .employment a distant supervision is still ewsrci*«l over them throueli the agency of th*' I'oliMi DepartrncTit. Many years after a young-men has laft an inclnstrial school, and when he has long living a respectable life, th-ft police have to make inquiries roK&rding him. Hp writing a.nd otherwise, which ih<'7 find particularly unpleasant and often ■*■ diffietilt. fherc is a wide impression that tho Biip<'rvisirm in. question might be abandoned 'altogether after a ninch shorter period thaa is now tho rnlo.] '. ' ■ THE WELLINCTOM POLICE. A RESOLUTION. A meeting of the Wellington police foret was held at the Larnbton Quay Station lagt night, when 42 members of all rank* were present, and a resolution was unanimooely adopted to the effect that the meeting riewg with grave concern the proceedings at the Dunedin sitting of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the N'«w Zealand Police Force, ipagmnch as among other things it is reported r (1) That incorrect assertions as to misconduct in the Wellin#on Police Barracks, etc., were made by Mr, Arnold, M.P.; (2) that Constable C. H. Lennon, forroerly of Wellington, btit now an assistant clerk in the Danedin Police Office, wfw had been described by Inspector O'Brien as a pot, from another district, was vjdenied the right of cross-examination of his accuser, whereas others were allowed to freely crcw-eTamiae non-acensers and adversely criticise absentee officers; (3) that Mr. Bishop, S.M., Ha* now piiblidy acknowledcnd ifcit a prevfons Commission of Inquiry ir'to ;■*. New Zealand police, and of which he was fracied its report severely dealing with oScers, st least partially from newspaper reports of fte proceeding; and having regard to the ap* parent serionsness of the sitnaiion thi* _m«*'ing desires to express its foil appreciation of the confidence in onr present Commissioner of Police, Mr. Dinnie, and farther resolves to employ able counsel to represent the police of Wellington and suborbs at..the approaching sitting of the Hoyal Coinmission in this'city, so that the protection of the individual and collective rights of _ all concerned may be assured, and that justice, fair play, and truth may prevail."