The Globe. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 5, 1877.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 1023, 5 October 1877, Page 2

The Globe. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 5, 1877.

The Lord Mayor of London has made an appeal to the colonists of New Zealand on behalf of the sufferers by the Indian famine. In Dunedin a response has already been made, and we hope the example set will he followed here and elsewhere. This appeal is made, not only in the name of common humanity, but on the ground that the sufferers are British subjects. We hope it will not ho said that we in this land of plenty have turned a deaf ear to the appeal which has thus been made. Some idea of the extent of the disaster may be formed when we state that on the date of the departure of the last mail from England, nearly a million natives were employed upon the relief works in Madras and Mysore, and 870,000 were receiving charitable relief. In Bombay 256,000 were employed upon the works, and 119,000 were charitably relieved. But this is not all; not only is there present distress, there is the prospect of a scanty harvest all over Southern India, and there will he a scarcity in the North-west From the fact that an appeal has been made to the colonies for help, we must conclude that since the departure of the last mail, the danger has greatly increased. No movement has yet been been set on foot in Christchurch to raise subscriptions. The amount we may be able to raise will probably not he large, compared with what they are doing elsewdiere: hut whatever its amount, it will be an indication that wo are fully alive to the urgency of the case, and are not indifferent to an appeal which has been made to the whole British nation. We hope,therefore, his Worship the Mayor will lose no time in convening a public meeting to devise means of raising subscriptions.

W E have no doubt the remarks which his "Worship felt it his duty to make in the case against George Jackson, in the Resident Magistrate’s Court yesterday, will have some beneficial result, and tend to make the police more careful in the future. Prom the evidence it appears that one G-eorge {Jackson was arrested, charged with being drunk and disorderly and with assaulting and resisting the I police on Sunday morning about one o’clock; that there -was no occasion for the interference of a constable at all, and that when he did, he behaved in a most brutal manner. His Worship characterised the affair as a gross piece of meddlesome interference lon the part of the constable, and of brutality afterwards. We have no doubt the Commissioner has already taken steps to deal in a thorough manner with the matter, and that there will be no occasion to complain of such conduct on the part of the particular constable named for the future. But we hope some steps will also be taken to enlighten some of the members of the force as to their I duties and responsibilities. If anyone ! will take the trouble to attend the | Police Court for a few mornings, and f listen to the evidence given in many | cases of drunkenness, he must come |to the conclusion that nothing but ! meddlesome interference can account for some of the charges brought, and that the arresting constables in many cases would have thoroughly done their duty had they contented themselves with a warning, instead of arresting the unfortunate inebriates. Of course it is necessary they should carefully protect the life and property of the community, but that is a very different thing from displaying an exuberance of zeal, which we feel quite certain is frequently exhibited in a wrong direction.