The Daily News. MONDAY, JUNE 2, 1913 THE POLICE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 1, 2 June 1913, Page 4

The Daily News. MONDAY, JUNE 2, 1913 THE POLICE.

We have the authority of comic opera for realising that when society's duty is to be done, "the policeman's lot is not a happy one." We are quite willing f( to concede the point, for the man on n the heat is not really a large-footed per- f son who sleeps all day at home and all fc night under a verandah, except in the v intervals when he is acquirjng gold a watches, which the allegedly comic <1 papers would have us believe is his principal mission in life, in the intervals t between drinking beer. As a matter of i fact, we have, in New Zealand, a really ' excellent force of responsible men, who t in the main, do their work admirably, c We have in the Dominion a lower pyr centage of crime than in any of tlm sister States across the narrow strip of s sea, and whilst we love to lay in flat ', tering unction to our souls that this is ] due to our superior individual morality * there is little doubt that the vigilant | o? the police must be credited with some , proportion of this comparative immun'ty ] from crime. We have none of tlie American system of graft—unless it ;a ' particularly cleverly concealed—and, th& men are subjected to the severest en- . quiry as to physique and, character before they can secure appointments in the force, a paternal Government, at the moment, is trying to teach them Hindustani and how to be happy though married, and the Rule of Three, but that is a legislative freak that will ultimately meet quite as much of its own reward as virtue does. It is impossible to police our cities by a hard and fast rule of thumb, and all the regulations and literary examinations in the world will rot give us a body of men equipped to prooperly patrol our streets. Policemen, J like poets whom they fail singularly ito resemble are born, and not made. None of the educational ac--1 quirements count for much when arresting a burglar or persuading the casual drunk that the street is not circular. There is a necessity for a certain amount of intelligence, even in a policeman, but the requirements for se- ' lection nowadays are like modern Rugby football—there are too many rules and too much of the referee's whistle. It is 'unfortunate, however, that the men themselves seem to have been bitten by a similar itch. We are told that there is a growing discontent in the force, cen- . treing mainly around the questions of ipay and promotion., and there is a threat, on the part of the men, to establish a "police association," which, in other words, would be "a constables' union." This will not do. If there is one thing absolutely necessary where the police force is concerned it is that the men must be subject to strict departmental supervision, and obey implicitly the orders of their superior officers. The ordinary constable wants instructions quite as much as initiative, and those instructions he must take from his chiefs and not from the secretary of the Amalgamated Order of Blue-coated Persons who Control the Streets. He can attend to the initiative part of the business himself. For this reason we are quite at one with Mr. Herdman when he says that the Government will not allow such an association to be formed, and that any members of the force who do not like the decision can do as the yellow parrot did with the ground sugar in the Voyage of the Barge—simply "lump it." This is emphatic but plain, sensible English. The men have already ample legislative provision for airing any grievances they may have, and they constitute a branch of the service which ought to be kept especially free from political and labor influences. The Government has taken a properly firm stand »in this matter, and if it would relax

some of its harassing regulations with regard to the literary requirements for promotion in the force, it would probably hear nothing more of the proposed association.