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fifteen years an additional one-fiftieth for each additional year of service up to thirty years, when he will be entitled to the maximum pension of three-fifths of his pay. No police officer shall be allowed to retire, except on certificate as above, unless he shall have served twenty-five years and have reached the age of fifty-five years. Any police officer who shall, on certificate as above, be shown to be permanently disabled by injuries sustained in the execution of his duty shall be entitled to a pension irrespective of the term of his service, the amount of such pension to be at the discretion of the Commissioner ; provided that it shall not be less than fifteen-fiftieths or more than throefifths of his pay at time of receiving such injury. Any police officer who shall be dismissed, the Force, or who shall have voluntarily retired before reaching the age of fifty-five years, shall forfeit all claim on the pension fund. By reference to the table showing the length of service of men in the Force it will be seen that there are seventy-four men of over twenty years' service, thirty-seven men of over twenty-five years' service, and twenty-one of over thirty years' service ; of these one is now over seventy years of age, five are now over sixty-five years of age, twelve are now over sixty years of age, and twenty-six are over fifty-five years of age. These men must therefore become an early charge upon the proposed pension fund, and to meet this it is equitable that the State should contribute to the fund as we have suggested. In order to arrive at an approximate estimate of the amount of that contribution, we must refer to the payments that have actually been made, and to the liability of the State under the Police Force Act, section 15. That section empowers your Excellency, out of moneys voted for the purpose, to award to any officers or constables such sums of money as shall seem meet as, inter alia, compensation for injuries, or as allowance to such as shall be disabled by bodily injury, or worn out by length of service. By a return furnished us it appears that the amount paid by the State during the last ten years is as follows ; —

Amounting in the aggregate to £28,601 18s. 3d. ; and in addition to this a pension of 15s. a week is paid to a man who was permanently injured. The liability of the State in respect of the Force under these heads may therefore be taken to be recognised, and our proposal is to relieve it, on the payment of a fixed sum, of any further responsibility. A present payment of £30,000 would, with the annual income to be derived from other sources, be sufficient to establish the proposed pension fund on a satisfactory basis, and so enable men who are past the stage at which they are valuable police officers to be retired from the Force without injustice and without further cost to the State. If the pension system cannot be adopted, then we recommend that a retiring-allowance similar to that now granted to prison warders—viz., one month's pay for each year of service —be given to all members of the Force whose services are dispensed with, or who may be medically certified to be permanently unfit for duty, instead of the special grants which are now in most cases made as compassionate-allowances. The adoption of these recommendations and the increase of the Force proposed will involve additional expenditure on the Police Force, but we are quite convinced it must be incurred if the colony desires to have a police service characterized by vitality and earnestness, as opposed to one in which the duties are performed in a perfunctory manner, without heart or

Year. Be tiring-allowance. Compassionate-allowance to Widows and Children. 1888 1889 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 ... i ... j £ s. d. 4,210 15 7 742 8 9 3,747 18 4 4,384 9 3 1,735 14 7 2,008 1 3 1,669 17 6 795 7 11 1,842 6 2 1,683 7 6 £ s. d. 164 5 0 191 12 6 786 4 0 547 10 6 392 7 6 310 5 0 564 9 8 219 0 0 1,247 17 6 1,284 18 9 £22,820 7 10 £5,781 10 5