The Waipawa Mail. Published Tuesday, Thursday & Saturday. SATURDAY, MAY 22, 1897. A POLICE SCANDAL.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XX, Issue 3601, 22 May 1897, Page 2

The Waipawa Mail. Published Tuesday, Thursday & Saturday. SATURDAY, MAY 22, 1897. A POLICE SCANDAL.

It is an open secret that great dissatisfaction exists in the police force of the colony at the partiality Bhown by certain officials. Competent men of long service are passed by and promotion given to many who have neither the ability, education, nor experience to fit them for positions they are hoisted into because of political influence. The Manawatu Standard drawß attention to a disgraceful case, which it truly says, demands an inquiry by a Royal Commission. The facts are thus related by our contemporary : —'" At the time of the late general election there was stationed at Picton a constable named Jeffries who has been in the service about 35 years. He is an extremely honest man and during his stay in Picton he made many friends tv the thorough manner in which he carried out his duties and his numerous acts of kindness prompted by genuine goodness of heart. About the beginning of this year Constable Jeffries was transferred to Takaka, a small station iu the Nelson district. Supposing it was desirable to shift Constable Jeffries, then it was the duty of the authorities to transfer him to some station where he would be most useful to the colony, but what are the facts. They have now sent a man nearly 60 years of age, 16 stone weight, into a district where three parts of the work must be done on horseback. Jeffries is a married man, but there is no accommodation for a family at Takaka, consequently his wife and children live in Picton, and he is exiled in Takaka. On top of this he loses about £BO per year, which he earned as Clerk of the Court, a department of the service in which he was highly expert, having made a special study of it; but all this experience is now lost to the colony and his place is filled by a man who knows little or nothing about this class of work. These are the anomalies and injustices of the position supposing a transfer had been desirable, but it was neither necessary nor desirable. The reason for the action of the Department is not far to seek, indeed Commissioner Hume practically informed the Constable that he had not endeavored to secure the* election of the Government Whip for the Wairau electorate, and therefore did not understand the first duty of a police-man-self preservation. We are led to the conclusion that this is correct by several things. Prior to the general election Mr C. H. Mills very improperly asked Constable Jeffries if he would support him, and met with a blunt refusal. Immediately after the election, Mr Mills lodged a complaint against the Constable of

improperly striking seven names off the roll. Upon an official inquiry being made into the matter, it was found that five out of the seven had been transferred to the Nelson roll by the Eogistrar at Havelock, and that the other two had never applied to be registered at all. Thus Constable Jeffries was vindicated as completely as he could desire. Then a curious coincidence transpired. Mr C. H. Mills visited Wellington —iu connection with the Record Reign celebrations, we presume—and almost immediately afterwards Constable Jeffries received notice of removal to Takaka, practically disrating him. Now, no one would insinuate for a moment that Mr Mills would commit such a dishonorable action as to endeavor to punish a man because he did not support him politically, by using his influence with the Minister in charge of the Police Department to have Constable Jeffries disrated, but we are faced with the unpleasant alternative of concluding that the removal was carried out with a desire to please Mr Mills on the part of someone in a responsible position in the Police Department. What trans pired duriug Mr Mills’ visit to Wellington of course we do not pretend to say. He may have used all his persuasive eloquence to prevent the transfer of the official he had .just failed in substantiating charges against, or he may have tried to obtain substantial promotion for him, but the fact remains that within a few days of his arrival there it was announced that Constable Jeffries was to be transferred to Takaka. When this decision was made known, protests against the removal were showered in from all quarters, local bodies, Justices of the Peace, and private individuals of every capacity, asked that the order be countermanded ; but without effect, Constable Jeffries had refused to vote for the Government Whip—a crime of the first magnitude—and he had to go.”