CORRESPONDENCE. THE POLICE STRIKE

Tuapeka Times, Volume V, Issue 230, 27 June 1872, Page 7

CORRESPONDENCE. THE POLICE STRIKE

(To Me Editor.) Sir, — As so much has been written lately on the subject of the police and their pay, would you kindly allow me to say a few words on the subject. I, myself, although not connected with the force, have served in the Irish Constabulary, in the English, and in the Victorian police, and X have no hesitation in stating that the pay of the men iv the up-eouutry districts of Otago is the wovst of any in tbo colonies. Take for instance the case of a trooper travelling on the goldfields at a salary of seven shillings and sixpence per diem. If, as is very often the case, he puts up at a hotel, he has to pay at the rate of two shillings and sixpence per meal for his food,- and in case of his committing the gluttonous excess of indulging in threo meals during one day, it certainly leaves, him, little for the purchase of clothing; or, if he is married, to provide for his wife and family. Our intelligent and economical Government have never taken into consideration that in almost every service in the British empire an allowance is made for clothing, food, &c, In Otago this is not tho caso. Tho members of the police force have to supply themselves with everything — food, clothing, quarters. And when it is taken into consideration the expensive uniform they wear, and that when travelling they cannot "swing their bt'lies" and cook their own food, £ think it must be obvious even to tho most prejudiced of people that to do all this at the munificent sum of seven shillings and sixpence per diem would require a very different kind of financiers to those we find have the expending of our public moneys. I would also bog to call the attention of the public to the fact that the police of this province fill more offices than any similar body of men in the colonies, and for which they receive no extra pay. I am acquainted with several constables on the goldfields who have been in charge of stations for the past five or six years, during the whole of which time they have performed the duties of sei'geants, but have neither received promotion nor extra pay, and along with their usual polu-e duties, these men have to act as collectors of the public revenue, and it speaks well for the morale of the force that although a large amount of money passes through their hands, only one solitary instance of dishonesiy on the part of any of the members of the force has occurred. In fact I have no hesitation in saying that, some three years ago, a more honest, respectable, and intelligent body of men . could not be found in the southern hemisphere than the men of the Otago police force. H.R.H. the Duke of Edinburgh expressed his unqualified approbation of these men on his visit to Dunedin, but I fear should he pay us a visit in the course of a few years, he could scarcely give the same opinion, for it must be apparent to the most casual observer that the force has been retrograding to a great degree for some time past; in fact the late act of insubordination displaped by the membera of the force in Dunedin. speaks for itself. If the department had been properly conducted, such an occurrence could not have taken place. The men must have been driven to desperation at finding themselves des-pised-by the Government, and at seeing the head of their department — instead of endeavouring to give that tone of esprit de corps which is essential to the well doing of any body of men, apparently through a miserable spirit of false economy, — -using every exertion on his part to cat down their salaries for no other apparent purpose than to ingratiate himself with the cheese- paring government of the day. Trusting I have not trespassed too much on your space, and that you will give this room in your paper on behalf of a much abused body of men, and men who have no.t the privilege of speaking for themselves. — I am &c, Pexsioneu. Queenstown, 15th June.

An exchange says: — The manner in which the Provincial Government ot Otago lias allowed a large block of valuable land, eminently suitable for "agricultural purposes, and which might have been transformed into a flourishing settlement, to pass into the hands of the greatest of all the cormorant land-jobbers, should prove a warning to the colonists of New Zealand to prevent such an occurrence again, in any part of the island. Clarke's success has emboldened other speculators to at. tempt emulation, and we hear of a gentleman resident in Canterbury, and nearly connected with a Q-overnment official of high standing, being now engaged in an attempt to secure for himself a tract of country in the North island even larger and more valuable than the Moa block. This land is in the immediate vicinity of Tuhua, where gold is alleged to have been discovered, and where, in fact, it is absolutely known to exist in larger or smaller qurntities over a large extent of country. This block, known as Mum Mut v, is of great extent, rich and level, supplied with timber, and affording every facility for prosperous setttle-. tncnt.