CORRESPONDENCE. A POLICE QUESTION.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XVI, Issue 5108, 21 August 1895, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE.

A POLICE QUESTION.

[to the kuitor.] Dear Sin, —It is generally considered that complaints made of police and their duties through the medium of the press, gives them no opportunity for retaliation or a chance to refute the charges imputed to them. To a certain extent this is so, and it is therefore the duty of the public, to stand by them and assist them in any good object they may have iu view, and not to cry out against them in the manner we so often see. At the same time I contend that the public have a perfectright to criticise the actions of the police and their Department as well, They pay dearly enough for it, goodness knows! Were it not for the justified criticisms of the press, life in the Colony, at times, would simply be intolerable, It is ayearpastsince I drew your attention to the fact that —though ouv' Statutes provided it to bo the duty of the police to prevent people loitering and congregating about the business thououghfaies large numbers of men were allowed to crowd and stand around certain places of business, occupying the whole footpath, some of them using language and comments ut pon passersby—male and female —anything but edifying, whilst the unfortunate woman out for the purchase of household requirements, in order to pass, had to stop into the muddy gutters of tho street—in some cases under the fire of the criticisms of the mob, until these places of gathering were passed. Where were the police upon these occasions, particularly on Saturday nights ? A year has since gono by, the same police aro with us, and the way in which they have met, the duties during that period, I will pass by, as it lias been well fought out through your columns from time to time, and from casual observance I come to the conclusion that the fault lies as much with the individual police? man himself as with the Department under which he is controlled, and until he is able to control himself sufficiently to do his duty in a conscientious manner, any management will not havo tho effect it should upon him, Though my duty it far from being that of surveillance over tho aotions of this particular body of men, asacausual obsorvor I havo dotected various cases in which they have been slow to duty, and I therefore maintain that in cases whero policemen are at fault, they should be shifted, as the publie suffer to a great extent thereby. 1 will not attempt to bring to light any apparent gilcvous misconduct on the part of our police who, while they are among us, have every right to be treated with tho respect which their position commands,' ljut I will state one thing wherein I differ with them, and that is, as I pointed out op a forinor occasion, their method of dealing with tho public regarding .their conduct whilst out on our public streets, principally, of course, Queen-street. Itquitecasuailycanip to my notice that one of t!IP police i up tq an elderly female who i hod, in meeting a friend, lingered a i few minutes on the waysido, find "challenged" hev to "move on."

I wns surprised to think that a constable should so approach one of the femalo sex, and in such a manner, and at the same time allow men to do almost as they liked; the woman's stopping to converse with a frioiid in our streets in broad daylight being deemed a sufficient breach of the law to rcquiro the application of a somewhat sovere remedy, whilst a host of men and youths are day after day, year in and ycarout, allowedtoeven block traffic, with a peaceful security that passes imagination, leave alone description! This was not the only case which came before my notice, for only on a recent Saturday ovening, this man in blue was apparently on the look-onfc for female offenders, and seeing three unoffending little girls looking at some attractive pictures in a bookseller's window, ordered them to" move on." Perhaps our local guardians will take this gentle hint and look a little better after male loiterers, before botheiing about little girls and women. 1 am, etc., . Resident. Masterton, August 21st.