POLICE PROMOTION SCHEME.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXX, Issue 3586, 27 July 1912, Page 8

POLICE PROMOTION SCHEME.

OFFICER PROMOTED BUT HIS SALARY DECREASED.

[PEE PEESS ASSOCIATION.!

AUCKLAND, July 26. An officer of tire local police force, who has a number of years of dike nit and creditable service in the force behind him, was two or three days igo made glad by the news that he baa •been selected for promotion to a higher rank, but his pleasure was sqm--what dashed by the discovery that i lie improvement in rank meant for him a decrease of sixpence a day in pay. . . All the surrounding circumstances go to- show that the promotion in rank was fully intended to be in the ratin’ft of reward for merit and that..the tfficer has merely landed by accident in a crack in tlio classification scheme of the force.

That, at any rate, was the view expressed by bim to a “Star” representative when sounded on the point. He was naturally rather reluctant to say anything at all oil the matter, but lie voiced an implicit trust that the thing would he made right in due course when -it was observed in the place where these things are rectified. Apparently in the past to redress some - grievances which have been found to press hardly, the ranking scheme has been tinkered in spots without a careful re-adjustment of the whole to make the addition fit smoothly and hence occasional aws -sucli as that mentioned above. L

It is, however, impossible to escape the hopeful note that breathes through the utterances of all men in the service here that the appointment of Commissioner Cullen ushers in the era- when the Department’s top of the ladder administration will always be in the hands of a man who lias been “through the mill.” It is recognised that much has to 1)9 undone before his creative policy can he put into operation, but all who have had experience of the Commissioner seem imbued with the stout conviction that- once lie has settled fairly in the saddle and gathered up the reins of office he will do more to make the Police Department a desirable place for efficient men than any number of Royal Commissions could effect.