The Globe. FRIDAY, MARCH 21, 1879.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1587, 21 March 1879, Page 2

The Globe. FRIDAY, MARCH 21, 1879.

A LARGE amount of virtuous indiguation has been expended far and wide in private circles, and through the medium of public prints at a distance, upon a certain fracas between a Justice of the Peace and a private in the police force. Sensational reports of the scene which occurred at Malvern on the 13th iust. between the Hon. Colonel de Reu/.io Brett and a policeman stationed there, have found their way into the columns of local journals, and the substance, clothed in ja somewhat dramatic garb, has been telegraphed to the four corners of the colony. As a dish of semi-official, semisocial scandal the affair has been served up with various sauces suited to the taste of the consumer. Constable Bashford has been converted into a martyr, and Colonel Brett into a species of modern Caligula, It has boon attempted to turn the affair into a question of class versus class, the fact being totally ignored that the Magistracy in New Zealand does not belong to any class, but that a seat on tho Bench is an ultimate legitimate object of ambition to every rightminded emigrant of whatever grade ho may happen to be, who lands on those shores, for, theoretically at all events, our Magistracy is open to merit and knowledge most especially. But to consider tho case in review;—Colonel Brett, as is well-known, has, like many others of his fellow colonists, his peculiarities. Generally speaking, however, whether it bo in the Legislative Council, upon the benches of which no more honorable or straightforward man sits, or as a member of some of our Canterbury public bodies, his presence is invariably hailed with satisfaction, and for various reasons the gallant officer is always considered tho right man in the right place. Eccentricity of character has not unfrequontly been laid at his door, but no one has yet been found to say that it was ever directed into any channel likely to cause injury to high or low. It appears that when at Malvern lately, engaged in his duties as one of the Licensing Commissioners of that district, Colonel Brett fell foul of Constable Bashford stationed there, and in peremptory tones brought him to hook for not saluting him. The policeman’s excuse was that he was not aware who Colonel Brett was. According to the constable’s version of tho affair—and it is tho only one which has yet reached the public ear —tho colonel at this completely lost his temper, and threatened the constable with dire punishments of various kinds, and upon the constable replying that, “after such language he would decline to salute Colonel Brett,” the irascible Justice of the Peace, exhibiting an unpardonable ignorance of tho most elementary laws of the land, gave the policeman into the custody of tho sergeant in charge of the station. Then came another extraordinary phase of this chapter of blunders. Tho sergeant arrested the constable, and had him forwarded as a prisoner to the Christchurch depot, where he was of course at once liberated. So far as this exciting little drama has run, the rising of the curtain, upon the last act, has discovered Constable Bashford fined £1 sterling by the Superintendent of Police —and very properly too —“ for breach of tho Police Regulations, which enjoin all police officers to salute magistrates in public places.” This rule, it must be recollected, Constable Bashford had broken through, on the plea that Colonel Brett’s conduct was not what lie, the constable, chose to consider, that of an officer and a gentleman. Whether a semi-military service such as tho police can be conducted satisfactorily if privates are to regulate their obedience to orders in this way we leave it to the public to decide. If policemen are to take “ The Manual of Polite Society” as their textbook, instead of “ The Manual of Police Regulations,” it had better be known at once, so that all of us who aspire to ho placed on the roll of J.P.s may at once go into strict training and place ourselves under Professors of Deportment. Of course wo have no wish to defend what Colonel Brett may have done at Malvern. He was no doubt violent, and his ignorance of the law must indeed have been great when he thought that magistrates are clothed with powers to give persons into custody for what are not offences in law. But discipline is discipline. A policeman is not a private individual, but one who has, for tho time being, signed away his liberty of action for the public good, as lias done every man who enters any service, such as tho army or navy, whore discipline is of tho first importance. To take another standpoint—while we condemn tho colonel’s want of knowledge, what shall wo say respecting tho sergeant who absolutely arrested the constable, on wiiat ho, an officer, we presume versed in the knowledge of tho A. B. C. of elementary criminal law, must have known was not a criminal offence! The police regulations, to which wo have made allusion above, are purely for tho guidance of the department.

They are issued in the form of a manual, and any broaches of those rules are punished summarily by the head of the force, who adjudicates upon thorn in a private manner and deals out penalties, whenever ho thinks fit, within the four walls o£ Ins office. Colonel Brett had no more right to give Constable Bashford in charge than the sergeant to receive the latter into custody. Want of knowledge of Ids jurisdiction caused the fiery old Indian officer to considerably jeopardize his dignity and that of his Magisterial ofiice. Instead of bandying words, ho should have reported the constable to the Superintendent of Police, who would have taken steps, as ho did later on, to discover whether his subordinate had rendered himself amenable to the Police Rules. The whole affair has caused so much excitement that wo have thought it well to dwell on what appears to us to bo the true bearings of a complete chapter of blunders. Constable Bashford is not a martyr, nor is Colonel Brett a would-be Caligula. To the former we recommend the study of a manual of discipline, to the hitter the study of a manual of magisterial law.