WOMEN POLICE.

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2422, 30 March 1915, Page 7

WOMEN POLICE.

Sir, — " 'Full many a gem of purest ray serene, The dark, untathomcd caves of ocean boar," etc. The above is prompted by a jewel which I discovered whilst idly scanning the less frequented pages of Thjj Dominion of March 23. Tucked away alongside an advertisement for Beecham's Pills, and another advertisement relating to weak backs, I found an account of the annual convention of tho W.C.T.U., held at Christcburch. Amongst other resolutions the following took my fancy: "That this convention strongly urges upon the Government the appointment of women police in New Zealand, and that the Minister,of Defence be urged to take immediate steps to appoint women patrols, to work in the neighboured of military camps, for the safeguarding of young people, and for the prevention of disorderly conduct." It is significant of the general upward trend of tho female mind, through higher education, emancipation, suffragettism, etc., that it should have been left to such a convention to solve this problem, viz., the rivalry between the soldier and the policeman for the favour of the plump cook or the trim house or nurse-maid. It is a scheme worthy of the greatest statesman, to eliminate the middle woman, and so bring the representative of tho civil and military powers together. The picture of the bold soldier boy and tho she policeman strolling around the lanes surrounding tho camp is one to gladden the hardest heart. lam afraid, howover, that thero is one serious drawback to this Utopian schemo; in fact, so serious that I cannot see how it can be overcome. Tho promulgators of tho idea, have evidently overlooked the tact that before one can be enrolled in «ny polico force they must como up to ft certain standard of physical excelu ■'^ ny wotnan physically fit to join the Police Force would .be busily etiough employed guarding the citadel, of her own charms, without having others to look after. As for those excellent creatures whose moral qualifications might be all that could bo desired for the position, 1 am afraid "Burns" must have had had them in his mind's eyo when he wrote:

Poor fools, to see thorn o'or their trash, m" as a withered rash. ml 1 ' .®pindle shanks a guid whip lash, J- heir liieve a uifc After a soldier bold to dash, Oh, how unfit!" —I am, ctc., AMOR SINE LABOR R. lalraerston North, March '27, 1915.