ARE THE POLICE UNDERPAID?

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2127, 9 July 1907, Page 1

ARE THE POLICE UNDERPAID?

The announcement made by tho Minister for Justice tho other day that it was the intention of the Government to introduce in Parliament this year a measure for increasin'* police pay lias prompted tlio Post to make enquiries into tho present conditions of our guardians of law and order. The public will perhaps he surprised to hear that the average policeman is suspected to he a man of at least fifth standard education, a man of more than ordinary physical proportions, a man of tact and general intelligence, yet he is the poorest paid individual in the service of tho country. A laborer earning his living with pick and shovel can command from 8s to 9s per day, but the guardian of the law must he content with the princely wage of 7s per day. If lie is a married man he will get a house allowance of anything from £l2 to £2O per annum, though as a rule his rent will cost him from £OO to £7O a year. The police, us far back as 1879, wore in receipt of 7s (id per day—(id more than they receive to-day. In the interval tho cost of living lias gone up m sympathy with the trend of the Limes, but tlio unfortunate policeman, it is pointed out, has had to he content with the same weekly pittance. In the interval, too, ho has been saddled with additional responsibilities. There is no denying tho statement that; the class of man offering for the police force some years ago is a missing quantity to-day, and small wonder. The inducements to rise in the service are not encouraging. In England the standard of pay for a policeman for the time he commences duty is that of a meclian-i:-i Here it is less than that of a laborer.

Detectives, who are supposed to he chosen from the. brainiest and smartest men in, the force, got 9s (id per dav. Chief detectives are correspondingly underpaid. It is claimed that i a the last fifteen years the responsibilities of the police have been increased two-fold, and tlio tendency is to still further widen the scope of their labors.

A gentleman who is well acquainted with the work performed by the police, in a conversation with tho Post representative, contended that no policeman should get less than 9s per day. and no detective less than 12s per day, with a corresponding increase .according to rank for officers in both branches of the service.