AN INTERCOLONIAL POLICE DIFFICULTY.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4457, 2 July 1875, Page 3

AN INTERCOLONIAL POLICE DIFFICULTY.

(From the Argus.) The police forces of Victoria and the province of Wellington, N.Z., are at war, and if the consequences of the quarrel are not likely to he very serious, a good deal of bitterness has already found its way into the correspondence. The Acting Chief Secretary heads the fight on behalf of the Victorian force, and the Superintendent of Wellington conducts the battle for his own men. It will thus bo seen that some of the highest powers in the two colonies are involved in the war. I(r began by an application to the Victorian police by the Wellington force for payment of a reward—or rather two rewards—for the apprehension of Drummond, the absconding manager of a branch of the Melbourne and Suburban Bank, and the recovery of moneys he was supposed to have in his possession. The terms of the reward were £SO by the Government for the apprehension of Dummond, and 10 per cent, by the Loudon Guarantee Society for any sums recovered that might go in reduction of any claim upon them by the bank. But that condition of the second reward was not communicated in the first instance to the Wellington police, and if it had, would probably not have been understood. They simply read the information furnished to them that £SO and 10 percent, of any moneys recovered were offered for the capture of the offender. They cleverly picked up Drummond in Wellington on his way to San Francisco ; they detained him until an officer was sent down to convey him to Victoria ; and they recovered over £470 in gold in his possession or paid to the agents of the Californian steamers for passage fares of Drummond and the person who accompanied him in his flight. The Victorian police promptly enough transmitted the portion of the reward offered by the Government to the Superintendent of Wellington for distribution to the officers entitled to receive it. But the amount of the percentage —£47 10s.—the Superintendent has not been able to recover from the Acting Chief Secretary. The Victorian police deny their responsibility for the amount, as they did not guarantee it, but simply announced it as offered. The guarantee society refuse to pay on the ground that, having compromised matters with the bank, the money recovered did not really go in mitigation of their loss. The police of Wellington assert that they have no concern with the x-elations of the police of Victoria and the society referred to, —that they are not interested in any compromise that the society and the bank may have arrived at, —they look simply to the Victorian force to keep faith with them in the matter of a reward offered for certain services which they rendered. But the inspector of the police of Wellington in his last letter to the Superintendent, and by the latter forwarded to the Victorian Government, writes very strongly on this breach of faith, as he regards it, and asserts that this is not the first occasion in which the Wellington force has been treated in a similar way. He instances the case of a person named Cullamore, a publican of Ballarat, who was “wanted” in Victoria, and was picked up by the Wellington police, when a similar difficulty about the reward occurred. He goes further, and asserts that the Wellington police have in fact been systematically treated unfairly by the Victorian force, while ho expresses a fear that an ill-feeling may arise which would not further the interests of justice. The West Coast of New Zealand is a favorite resort of strangers from the other colonies who do not' desire their departure from Victoria to be particularly remarked, and Wellington has proved a trap for not a few of these persons during the last few years. The Acting Chief Secretary deprecates the expression of any such fear, and complains of the tone of the inspector’s communication to the Superintendent.