THE GLOBE. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 1882. THE CASE OF EX-DETECTIVE FARRELL.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2631, 12 September 1882, Page 2

THE GLOBE. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 1882. THE CASE OF EX-DETECTIVE FARRELL.

We quite fail to sea why Government officials should be treated in a manner altogether different from other officials. It appears to us to be altogether subversive of the discipline which shoald prevail in every well regulated service if it once becomes a recognised principle that a Government employe has. a vested right to appeal to the people from the decision of his amployers. And yet this is what it haa come to afc the present time. If, from some- cause or other, the services, say, of a policeman or a railway employe are dispeaeed with and another billet is not found ready to hand, he straightway interests a few people in his fasor, an agitation ia got up, possibly a public meeting is held, and the Government and all connected with them are handled in the roughest of zaanners. There is a class of windy orators who delight in such opportunities of airing their eloquence. We had an example of this sort of thing not long ago in Christchurch. A railway employe considered himself badly used, and he was instantly taken up and transformed by a public meeting into a sort of political martyr. The public were invited to believe that something very terrible had happened, that the Magna Carta had been in some mysterious way violated, and that if the individual in question were not reinstated or compensated, it would be a sign that a worse than Buesian tyranny existed in this

country. And yet theso same windy orators are always the first to cry out if anything gees wrong in any department. Then they talk about the evil of centralization, and recommend, for instance, a non-political Board for the management of our railways and so on. We venture, however, to think that, were such a Board appointed, our friends the windy orators would be just as ready to take up any stray case that might come under their notice, and persist in looking, for the time being and from motives connected with their own ideas of their own selfimportance, on Government officials in general as creatures of quite a different stamp to other employes and as individuals peculiarly privileged. For our own part, we fail to see why Government employes should be treated in a different manner from gentlemen holding similar positions under other bodies. An employe of a municipality, if he finds himself out in the cold, doss not get up a public meeting to ventilate his grievances, and yet he is as I much a servant of the public as is the Government official.

We have, however, this to say in favor of the windy orators, namely, that the Legislature does not set them a very good example. The case of Detective Farrell will illustrate what we mean. This official was allowed to give up his placo in the force because he was evidently unfitted to be in it. It is true that he had been a policeman for twenty years without any charge of misconduct or disobedience, but one fine day he had a row with a half-drunken man in Grahamstown. Had ho hit this inebriate there and then a reprimand or something of that sort would no doubt have met the exigencies of the case, but he decoyed the unfortunate individual into the police office, locked the door, and proceeded to punch him in a brutal manner, the wretched inebriate being usable to defend himself. Farrell was convicted of the offence at the Resident Magistrate's Court, and fiaally sent in his resignation. His previous good conduct and long service no doubt moved his employers to allow him to withdraw from the force, and not to be dismissed, but that he was not a fit person any longer to be in it, is sufficiently patent. The police, be it remembered, is a semi-military body where, if anywhere, the strictest discipline is necessary, and it is almost impossible to conceive a grosser violation of duty than that committed by this detective. It is true that there existed his previous record of good conduct for & number of years; but take the case or any other service. Fancy an officer in the army acting with a similar disregard to all proprieties. How much public sympathy, we should like to know, would be extended to him ? Supposing a captain of a vessel, who had grown grey in the service, were to misbehave himself to a similar extent, would he be pitied ? And yet, forsooth, because Detective Farrell is a Government official, his ease is taken up, a petition is got up, and the Public Petition Committee report that, having carefully considered the case, they are of opinion tint he has some claim for compensation and recommend that, if he cannot be reinstated in the police force, he should receive someother employment in the public service, for which he is suited.

We hold distinctly that Bach a report wag entirely unsuited to the case, and' mast tend to the disintegration of the force. Discipline had been grossly violated, and Far roll had shown that ha was unfitted for the position he held. Suppose him to be placed in another Government billet, and to rise to the possession of a salary larger than that ha had hitherto been receiving : what an example- to the rest of the force! If other policemen are to be led to suppose that a certain number of years of good service entitles them to compensation in case of breach of discipline, to what might it not lead ?■ The hold over these privileged gentlemen by their superiors wonld be weakened to' an extent which would render the position of these latter a most difficult one. The Committee should undoubtedly have reported that the matter was onebetween Farrell and the department, and that they were not called upon to make any recommendation. Sucb a report would- have read a good- lesson to superiors and inferiors in the force.. Bat the truth of it is that; Government officials are a power in the body politic, and weak-minded legislators are more or less afraid of them. What the House intend to do in th«. matter we do not know, for wo confess to being unable to understand the meaning of what is to be found in our column of parliamentry proceedings this evening on the subject. But wotrust that it will not act weakly in the affair. The discipline of our policeforce is of paramount importance, and the very length of service of Detective Farrell should have been a guarantee against his acting as he did. The yoacger members of that force would naturally luok up to a man in his position, aud, if his offence is to be condoned because of his former standing, all we oaa say is—God help the service.