The Police Commission.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 7872, 14 July 1905, Page 2

The Police Commission.

Serious Allegations. SYSTEMATIC THIEVING BY THE POLICE.

(Per Press Association.) DUNEDIN, July W. The Police Commission resumed tins n.oriiinjS, and took Mm evidence of ,3ei,,Ldivt Ryan, who was in charge 01 t..c leliit on two occasions when rouVciits occurred at the D.I.CV On one uf Uiose occasions he found Moses oil !ns beat for forty minutes, ar.'.l fi.])oi-U'J| him for it. He always took McDonald for a straightforward soil of man.

Liiiei-Deteclive Herbert considered Ural everything possible hud been ,donj 1.-v the authorities in (■omiecjiion with-, the robberies. He thought llie area, supervised by the servants in Dunedin too large, and that it should be cut up into three sections. > rom information now in the possession of the police, the retteries hail Ken going on for four or five years.. They, started in a small way, and gradually grew. He disapproved of appointing detectors of sly-grog selling to the Police Force. Sergeant Ramsay complained that Dunedin a sergeant had to gallop round all night, if the men were to be looked after properly. The evidence of Moses was taken at the gaol. He said the working of the beats in Dunedin was like clockwork. They knew when to expect the sergeants. Thieving had been going on for a considerable time prior to his arrival. Surprise visits by the sergeants would certainly have curtailed it. Witness had not been offered

any reward for making statements. He was looked upon as the black

sheep of the force, and wanted to clear himself.

James McDonald, also under sentence, staled others were implicated besides Moses, Osborne and himself. The articles were taken a few at a time. He believed the thefts were

going on for three or four years before he arrived here. It was a private individual who first introduced the subject to him. He believed these tilings were going on in other towns. He had heard it was going on in Christchuteh, 1 Oamaru, Timaru and Auckland. The Commission sits again, to-mor-row.