Royal Commission Second Report ( page 26)
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The Royal Commission Second Report cont
(By Messrs Gibb and Levey)
We must decline signing clauses 3 and 5. We should have preferred that the motion recommending Mr. Nicolson's superannuation had not been accompanied by the statement that "the want of unanimity existing between these officers, ie. Mr. Nicolson and Mr. Hare, was frequently the means of preventing concerted action on important occasions, and the interests of the colony greatly suffered thereby," inasmuch as we do not consider that the latter statement is borne out by the evidence, and a resolution to that effect was moved in the course of the deliberations on the report. Nor do we see anything in the evidence to warrant the recommendation that Mr. Hare should be superannuated.
JAMES GIBB.
GEORGE COLLINS LEVEY.
1. We, the undersigned Commissioners, in submitting a reply to the statement put forward in the form of a protest by Mr. Dixon, cannot refrain from expressing our surprise and regret that the document in question should be found a mere paraphrase of portions of Superintendent Hare's official report, which has been the source of so much mischief, and which we have no hesitation in declaring to be, in its essential features, a mere tissue of egotism and misrepresentation.
2. Your Commissioners have no desire to question Mr. Hare's personal courage or determination; the decision arrived at respecting this officer, we contend, has been based upon much more important considerations, namely, those of public expediency and the interest of the service.
3. Before proceeding to traverse the allegations contained in the official report and reproduced in the protest, we feel it incumbent upon us to make some reference to Superintendent Hare's conduct in connection with the present demoralized state of the police force of the colony.
4. There seems every reason to believe that Superintendent Hare was throughout in direct collusion with Captain Standish in the petty and dishonorable persecution to which Mr. Nicolson was subjected for many years while endeavoring honestly to discharge his duties to the best of his ability. Superintendent Hare admits that the late Chief Commissioner consulted him upon everything; one of the witnesses declared that Superintendent Hare was regarded as the actual head of the force; under such circumstances, how can Superintendent Hare be exonerated from all responsibility for the strained relations that existed amongst the officers?
5. Captain Standish characterized Mr. Nicolson's reports as twaddle; Superintendent Hare described them as infernal bosh. This agreement of opinion is significant when upon examination those reports are found to deserve a very different appellation. Had Captain Standish acted properly upon one of those written in 1877, concerning the state of the North-Eastern district, the Kelly outbreak would probably have been prevented.
6. Superintendent Hare exhibited a spirit of insubordination to a superior officer in questioning Mr. Nicolson's dictum regarding Constable Redding, and in the Assistant Commissioner's presence coinciding with Captain Standish when the latter was informed that Constable Gorman was not a suitable man for a particular station. Further, as showing Superintendent Hare's regard for the rules of the service, and the respect due to a superior officer, it may be added that when in the course of the enquiry Mr. Nicolson forwarded, as a matter of courtesy, a communication to Mr. Hare, the reply received, after acknowledging the receipt of the document, was as follows:- "I would suggest to Mr. Nicolson the advisability of his devoting his attentions to answering the serious charges preferred by the witnesses examined before the Commission against himself instead of attempting to find fault with my conduct. - Francis Hare, Supt., 26/9/8 l."
7. In the personal feuds and jealousies which have marked the relations of the police officers, Superintendent Hare appears to have adroitly sheltered himself behind the late Chief Commissioner. Further, it is notorious that many of the men have taken sides with the officers, and that a spirit of rivalry and dissension exists in the lower ranks of the force.
8. Superintendent Hare's position as officer of the depot gave him many advantages over his brother officers, which he was not slow to utilize.
9. Your Commissioners cannot too strongly deprecate the action taken by Superintendent Hare to override the decision of the political head of the department, in order to retain his position as officer of the depot and avoid being sent to Beechworth. With very questionable taste, and contrary to the regulations of the service, he applied personally to Sir George Bowen, the Governor of the colony, whom he met at a coursing meeting, to intercede for him and have the order for his removal cancelled. While Mr. Hare acknowledges to have .cont
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