South Canterbury Times. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1882.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2945, 2 September 1882, Page 2

South Canterbury Times. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1882.

We give, in another eolnmn, a fall report of the meeting of burgesses in the South-Eastern Ward of this Borough. We have done so purely in the interests of fair play. It is evident that there is a wide-spread desire for the influx of new blood in the Council. If that be the case, there is no reason why steps should not be taken to infuse the new blood. But we regret that the initiatory movement should have been marked by gross personalities, altogether unworthy of the objects in view, qnite at variance with a true public spirit, and most unlikely to secure beneficial results to the cominunity. We have no “ axe to grind ” in this matter ; We have no candidate “in our eye.” But we like to see contests of this sort fought upon their merits; and when personalities are imported into discussions on public affairs, merits are left out of the count, and every step takeh'is based upon the paltriest considerations. The . Chairman of last night’s meeting, as became a person of his long experience of public and private affairs, deprecated personality in discussion, and pointed out that in these matters higher purposes than the indulgence of petty animosity should be held in view. Mr Gibson addressed those present with remarkable force. He urged that it was not fair or reasonable to denounce a man as a scoundrel merely because he held a public position ; nor was it a logical sequence that a man holding a public position must necessarily be serving bis personal interests at the expense of those of the public. With all that was said on the important subjects of gas, water supply, and drainage, we heartily concur. The first is shamefully dear, the second is doubtful, and the third ought tobe estalished as early as possible. If the present Council are dilatory or incapable in any or all these matters, by all means let other councillors be elected. But all this can be done without Billingsgatish. personalities.

Mr Macandbbw, on Thursday evening, characterised the item of expenditure for constabulary and police as extravagant, and he opined that to place the police under local authority would lessen the expenditure considerably. This argument may be viewed from two standpoints, those, viz;, of economy and efficiency. Looked at from the former, it is a perfectly sound one. We quite believe the large centres of population should be quite as peaceable with a smaller police force than they actually have. / We do not require numerial strength, so much as individual capacity in a police force ; and in a city—in this colony at least —the bulk of the population are always prepared to observe, and enforce the observance of, law and order. It is in detection rather than in forcible treatment of criminals that our police are wanted. The police force, therefore, might with advantage be reduced. Whether such a reduction would necessitate localising the authorities is another matter. Looked at from the standpoint of efficiency, we think the localising of police authority would not work well. There is a military basis to the police organisation, and what attracts so many fine fellows to the force is this same military organisation—the fact ofbeing amenable to superior officers and not to local authorities. When the police are subject to the latter kind of authority we feel sure their ranks will no longer be recruited from the . desirable classes of which they are now composed, but from quite another kind of men. Localisation would ruin the efficiency of the force. Of that we feel confident. There remains yet another question, whether, in truth, we are not rapidly approaching the time when a muscular police will be superseded by a body of keen-witted constables. There is but little occupation for our stalwart policemen, and we are strong in them. There is plenty of occupation for clever detectives (who need not be policemen at all), and in these British communities are notoriously weak. This opens np another question however. What we are now concerned about is the

theory of localising police authority, and we are bonnd to say we think this unlikely to promote the efficiency of the force.