TOPICS OF THE DAY

Evening Post, Volume LXXXV, Issue 35, 11 February 1913, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY

New regulations for the police have v been issued, and the Pay men in the higher of the Police, ranks have the glad tidings of increased salaries. These increments, which are not huge, are woll deserved. There ie, however, one sad line in the statement; it is :-^" Constables, 8s to 10s 6d. No alteration in present iates." We are aware that the pay of these handy men of tho service was slightly improved by the Ward Government, but the scale is not yet very attractive by comparison with the rewards for almost every other "Walk of life." Unskilled labour ie commanding Is 3d an hour, or 10s a day, in many districts of New Zealand, and in most skilled trades the minimum wages for n full working day of eight hours exceed the 10s 6d maximum of the constable. Much is expected from the average policeman, but his value to the community does not appear to be sufficiently recognised by the executive representatives of the public. "Provision is made," says the Minister of Justice (the Hon. A. L. Herdman). "for vacancies in the detective branch being filled by the selection of constables of over four years' service, of exemplary conduct, and possessed of superior intelligence, and who have displayed tact, judgment, and energy in carrying out their duties." Men of that character aro to be hohoured with a labourer's wage till they have given proof of physical and moral and mental excellence to warrant ptomotion to tho gvade of detective,. In this rank a man

etarts at 10s 6d a day (6d higher than the pick-and-ehovel rave), and if lie continues iti hie course of "exemplary conduct. . . superior intelligence. . . tact . . . judgment, and energy," he will receive 13b 6d a day by tho end of another nine yeara. He will not have the chock of getting the 3e all at onco. It will come in three instalments of Is each, every three years. And "Sunday leave may be given to those who are on day duty whenever they can beapared." The argument commonly used against the arrangement of a nix-day week for the police (the holiday not to be Sunday for all) is "expense." Our belief ie that the public should be prepared to pay the money necessary to secure a thoroughly competent police force. It is lesa expensive, really, to offer fair terms than to attempt economy at tho sacrifice of efficiency. By "regulation," and by popular expectation, the constable is to be a picked man, etrong in wind and body, courageous, adamant against all temptation of "graft," a, Sir Galahad against the evil-doer— and 0, grateful public will give him 89, riaihg to 10s 6d, if he continues to prove that he is worth much more than that piok-and-shovel rate. An effort is being made in Britain to secure the political fuA Great sion of the Co-opera-Combination. tive and Labour movet ments. As both these names have a wider and also a narrower meaning, some doubt arises as to the precise bearing of this cabled generalisation ; but probably the negotiating body on the Co-operative side is the Co-opera-tive Union, which is the organising and propagandist centre of the movement, and which in 1910 represented 1267 cooperative societies. It may be mentioned that in the United Kingdom there were in that year 1428 diatributivo societies, 912 agricultural, 295 credit, and 120 productive. The Co-operative Union has its central board ahd its annual congress, and its sectional committees include one on Parliamentary matters, while there is also a joint arbitration committee with trade unionists. It is likely, therefore, that any fusion negotiations would proceed through the Cooperative Union, for ifc is the propagan* dist for a number of societies whose primary object is to so control distribution as to save for their members the profit of the shopkeeper and, if possible, of the wholesaler 5 and who constitute a huge and growing force in modern economic development. Many of these co-operative distributive societies also give their employees a share of their profits, and thus one wing of the movement covers the highly-promising field pf labour co-partnership, in which unionj ists and workers are directly concerned. On the other hand, the Labour Party is I a composite body represented in Parliament by Independent Labourites (who are Socialists), by trade unionists, and by members of other Labour organisations ; and the Independent Labourites (known as the 1.L.P.) have been described as the driving force of the party. No doubt thh introduction ot the cooperative element would aT!K to the stability of Labour in politics. These cooperative societies stahd for thrift, Bystem, and strong common-sense, and should, therefore, be a natural corrective to the anarchic section which persist' ently tries to stampede Labour movements into impossible courses. But are all these Labour units sufficiently homogeheous to be bound together! The fact that prominent trade unionists opposed Labour co-partnership, as being destructive to the principle of collective bargaining, is not altogether reassuring, It may be added that in 1910 the 1428 co-operative distributive B<Wetiqs, -v, the United Kingdom had over two' and ahalf million members, possessed over thirty-one tmllibhs share capital, sold goods worth nearly seventy-two millions sterling; and. made profits aggregating nearly eleven millions.