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when these duties that are not police-work proper can be undertaken without putting any undue strain on the Force, but with an increase of efficiency and a diminution of the friction between the police and the people, a decided point has been gained. The more the police have to do, in reason, the better they will do it, and the more work there is thrown upon them the more efficient they will become. The idea that a policeman is a mere machine to walk up and down the streets and look after criminals and offenders is fast becoming exploded, and the more the town constable is given to think of when on his beat the better he will carry out his duty. 8. Statutes. —The special attention given by the police during the past year to the enforcement of the Licensing Act, more especially as regards Sunday trading, and closing licensed houses at stipulated hours, has been productive of pood results, and many convictions have been obtained ; but the Act as it stands is complicated and difficult to handle, and requires amending in many directions. The police have during the year been fairly successful in obtaining convictions for sly-grog selling; but there is reason to fear a considerable illicit trade is carried on in some of the isolated districts, especially where large contracts are being carried out. As regards the repression of street larrikinism, the efforts of the police have, I am glad to be able to report, been attended with considerable success, and this serious evil is now certainly not on the increase in this colony. 9. Superannuation Scheme. —The matter of a Superannuation Scheme for the members of the Force has received considerable attention, and the absence of any provision for retirement through old age or physical incapacity is a serious embarrassment to the administration of the Force ; but owing to the advanced age of the majority of the present members of the police any scheme that would commend itself must necessarily be established by so large a grant from Parliament as to place it absolutely beyond possibility of ever becoming a practical reality, especially as no superannuation scheme is general throughout the Civil Service of the colony, and therefore it is considered one branch could not be exceptionally treated in this respect. In order, however, to provide against members of the Force being turned adrift penniless when they become incapacitated from illness or old age for further service, all members of the permanent militia before being enrolled as constables are now required to produce a certificate showing that their lives are insured for not less than £200, payable on attaining the age of sixty years, or at death, if prior. This to some extent meets the important question of superannuation, while it is not considered a very heavy tax on their pay, as it will be recollected that constables, not being members of the Civil Service, are not liable to the deduction of 5 per cent, from their pay, as provided for for Civil servants by clause 11 of the " Civil Service Eeform Act, 1886." 10. Promotion. —Promotion, which has been virtually at a standstill for some years past, owing to the senior grades of sergeants and first-class constables being beyond their required strength, is now likely to flow steadily on ; but, owing to the numerous grades of the different ranks in the Force, this question of promotion becomes one of great difficulty as to selection. This may be better understood when it is known that a first-class constable in charge of a station, who is probably clerk of Court, and holds other appointments for which he is paid extra, is, as regards pay, responsibility, and hard work, infinitely better off than a first-class sergeant in a large town, who gets nothing but his police-pay proper, has to find a house, and oftentimes finds household commodities are far more expensive in towns than in the country districts. It is obviously necessary than many of the sergeants must be stationed in the towns, and I have no hesitation in recommending that in such cases, where they are married, the State should provide them with quarters, or an allowance in lieu thereof. At present, in many cases, the promotion of a third-class sergeant is a direct loss as regards pay. 11. Criminal Statistics. —The criminal statistics for the year ended 31st December, 1892, show in the North Island an increase of 481 in the number of all offences reported, and in the South Island a decrease of 102, or an increase throughout the colony of 379. There has been an increase in the undermentioned crimes :—Murder, 4; indecent assaults, 14; abusive and threatening language, 82 ; cattle and horse-stealing, 27 ; proceedings under Destitute Persons Act, 40; breaches of Gaming and Lotteries Act, 59; disorderly conduct, 19 ; neglected and criminal children, 35 ; minor cases Police Offences Act, 251; vagrancy, 130. Other crimes have decreased as follows : Assaults (common), 38 ; embezzlement, forgery, and uttering, 42; lunacy, 39; drunkenness, 56; breaches of the peace, 39 ; malicious injury to property, 29 ; arson, 6 ; illicit distillation, 6 ; cutting and wounding, 6 ; smuggling, 6 ; indecent exposure, 15 ; keeping disorderly houses, 20 ; larceny, 16; manslaughter, 3; rape, 7; perjury, 4; sheepstealing, 4. 12. General. —A considerable amount of adverse comment has been made as to the methods of dealing with what are known as " racecourse spielers," and, no doubt, owing to faulty legislation, this matter is somewhat complicated. As illustrations of the difficulties the police have to contend with under the Gaming and Lotteries Act, the following cases are cited : A man was summoned for laying totalisator-odds on a racecourse, after being warned by the race-club officers not to do so. In due course the case was tried before the Eesident Magistrate, and dismissed, on the grounds that the defendant did not occupy a fixed place on the course, but kept moving about ; and it was held that the object of section 11 of " The Gaming and Lotteries Act, 1881," was not so much to prevent betting, but rather to prevent houses, offices, and fixed places becoming public nuisances by congregating large numbers of people together, to the detriment of public morality. In another case proceedings were taken in the Eesident Magistrate's Court against two men for laying totalisatorodds on a racecourse. The case against one man was dismissed, but a conviction was obtained against the other; but the conviction was quashed on appeal to the Supreme Court, the Judge stating that it was not illegal to bet and give totalisator-odds, and, further, that independent bets laid at totalisator-odds do not in any sense constitute a scheme by which prizes of money are competed for within the meaning of the above-named Act. The latest development is a case of a man being made a prisoner of and. ejected from a racecourse for laying totalisator-odds, after being warned not to do so. The prisoner shortly after his ejection was released from custody by a Justice of the