The Globe. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1877.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 823, 10 February 1877, Page 2

The Globe. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1877.

One of the most important changes which Abolition has brought in its train is that affecting the managemennt and disposition of the Police force throughout the colony. Hitherto, the control of that department had been—with the exception of Auckland, where the General Government took charge of police matters from an impecunious Provincial Council—under local rule entirely. The Queen’s writ —to use an old expression—had certainly a clear run from one end of the colony to the other, but difficulties without number net unfrequently stood in the way of getting officials to execute it. Each provincial border was in effect a sort of barrier, over which a prisoner or a process of law might perhaps be slyly pitched, as there was no legal gate through which the jurisdiction of the law on either side could be openly connected. Many and loud were the complaints which of necessity arose on the part of the officers of the courts, the profession and the general public, at the unpleasant contretemps which at times was the sequence of this state of things. The Government is now giving the subject full consideration, and steps are being taken at the present moment by the Minister of Justice to bring the control of the police throughout the land under one uniform rule. It will first be brought under the operation of the Armed Constabulary Act, 1867, with a view, in case of need or emergency, to utilise it as an armed force. One set of police regulations, probably that originally introduced in Otago by the late Mr St John Branigan, and since adopted in the majority of the provinces with modification, will be selected and made law by a governor’s proclamation in the Gazette. Then we understand, that under one central governing head —a chief commissioner of police - the whole force will be placed, while a commissioner for each island will be appointed to supervise each his own district. The statement which was current some days ago, and which appeared in print, to the effect that the Government intended reducing the pay at present enjoyed by the force, is absolutely without 'foundation. Mr Bowen never thought of lowering the scale affecting the men, but we believe that some trifling alterations were only mentioned as likely to take place, in the mode of treating officers allowances. As things now are, we do not think that the police of Canterbury are over paid —far from it. And it is asserted that Mr. Shearman attributes the difficulty under which he has continually labored when seeking to obtain suitable men, to the fact mainly that the inducements held out by the rates of pay, &c., are not such as would tempt the class of persons needed for the work. Of course some people there are who think that anyone possessing a sufficient amount of bone, muscle and strength, is fit for the office of police constable. There never was a greater delusion. The qualifications absolutely requisite to constitute an efficient policeman are indeed many and varied. The physique is the least consideration perhaps. Besides good temper, patience and strong habits of discipline, an officer of police requires to master intricate rules and regulations, to become thoroughly conversant with digests of criminal or protective laws without number. If ever he trips in any of his multifarious duties, punishment or reprobation is swiftly upon him ; bub on the contrary, any exertions of his towards the protection of public right are passed over, and looked upon as a matter of course. “ His good deeds are written upon sand, his bad ones on marble.” And to no class of men does the rule apply with more truth than to the police, that if you want a good article, you must pay a good price for it. The reduction of their pay would be a fatal mistake. Their services, we consider, are not sufficiently remunerated at the present moment, and if the pruning knife has to be applied by the Government—as we believe it to be just now—to effect departmental retrenchment, we hope it may leave the force untouched, either in point of numerical strength or of pay. As a matter of fact, in Canterbury the department is much under-manned. Look at Christchurch for instance. Can any one ever succeed in seeing a policeman perambulating the suburbs or any of the thickly populated centres around the city? Once now and then a eoni e cable is seen on the belts, but it is only

on special occasions. The growth of larrikinism is fast developing, in consequence of that necessary check which the presence of the police necessarily gives being so seldom available. The reports of Mr. Shearman on the subject speak for themselves. Summed up, that portion which, refers to police supervision amounts to this, viz: “ You cannot make bricks without straw.” And the means placed at his disposal by the late Provincial Governmeat have not been such as to enable him to procure for the public a more efficient state of protection than that now existing. The Commissioner of the Otago Police, and Mr. Shearman, have gone to Wellington to confer with the Minister of Justice on the question of the new changes in their department. Lieut. Colonel Moule, we believe, the present Commissioner of the Armed Constabulary Force, will retain his appointment when the assimilation of the whole of the Provincial police to the colonial body takes place. Colonel Moule is an able administrator. He made his way up in the British army from the lowest rung of the ladder, mainly through his administrative qualifications. With Messrs. Shearman and Weldon at the head respectively of the North and Middle Island divisions, we fail to see how the appointment of the Colonel can be called into question on the ground of his want of knowledge in pure police matters. A firm hand, and a strict disciplinarian at the fountain head of the department, is all that is really wanted, and the questions arising out of the police details, would of course pass through the hands of those two experienced gentlemen who have for so many years had the control of the police force in the South portion of the Island.