REFORMING UNDER PRESSURE.

Taihape Daily Times, 29 October 1917, Page 5

REFORMING UNDER PRESSURE.

It is queer how blind are our authorities and how loth to do the obvious thing excepting under public pressure. By means of the Question Paper of the House, Attorney-General Herdman was informed that the cook employed at the Wellington Police Station was an unnaturalised Austrian and was actually on the police books to report once a week. W T hen he sought to verify this astonishing fact, Mr Herdman learned that the man wa s born in Berne, Switzerland, of Swiss parents, who emigrated to Austria and became naturalised there. But see how the authorities, caught red-handed, as it were, harbouring an enemy alien, sought to side-step out of their responsibility: "The man is employed as cook by the police mess committee—which decided some weeks ago to dispense with him as soon as he could be replaced. The Police Department had nothing to do with this appointment." Whose business was it, then, aryw"-?