Royal Commission report day 50 page 15
Story of the KellyGang - the Royal Commission Report
The Royal Commission evidence for 7/9/1881
(see also introduction to day 50)
[[../../people/peN_P/nicolsonPAC.html|Ass Com Charles Hope Nicolson]] giving evidence
16904 They had no knowledge at all of it?— No. The men there now I hope will become sufficiently efficient for the work, but it will take a considerable time to do it. If they were called on at the present moment, I doubt whether they would be efficient enough to accomplish the work without the assistance of the inhabitants. The fact is, in two words, unless the police have the confidence of the inhabitants of any district or any township, they will never become efficient, and the police lost the confidence of the people, good, bad, and indifferent, and until they regain it in that district (and that can only be by efficiency and good conduct), they will not be fully effective. Mr. Hare used the word “thwarted”—that I had accused him of doing so. I did not use that word. I said he was put up in opposition to me. Take the correspondence about Constable Redding; part of that report did not strike the Commission. I stated in that report that this man required more supervision than was given by merely visiting him. On three different occasions there was a lapse. One time he was only visited once in the year, and yet my report pointing that out met with indifference at the hands of the Chief Commissioner. On another occasion I visited the depot, and made a report which is here. I will read the part I am alluding to. –[From Report Book, 8th May 1876 .]- “14. At evening stables I observed several of the men at work wearing their uniform caps, some with chin-strap down, their pants and napoleon boots. 15. A man cannot groom his horse, clean his kit and arms in such a dress. It is too tight for such work; his breeches are apt to get too much soiled with dandriff to be fit for next day's parade, and his expensive boots get stained and rotted with the stable manure, &;c. 16. I submit that the men should be taught to do the above, or any other work of the kind, in 'fatigue dress,' not necessarily a uniform dress, but in any loose clothes they may possess. 17. I would permit any mounted man on arriving at his barracks, at the depot, or elsewhere (after removing the bridle and securing his horse in the stall with the head stall), to go immediately to his quarters, throw off his uniform, and return in fatigue dress to his horse; then, a trooper might be seen extending himself properly while grooming his horse, and no constraint in his motions through fear of soiling his clothes. 18. Two of the men stated in my presence that they required a clean pair of pants nearly every day. One of them had five pairs of pants; the other had four pairs. 19. The recruits cannot be too clean on parade, or at any other time in uniform. But to make them wear uniform at stables, morning or evening, is not calculated to teach them the above habit.” I must tell you I have been through all the curriculum of the mounted police duty and the foot too, and I have learned stable duty from the very first, and I am familiar with it all, and therefore I was amazed to see this state of things in the nursery of the force. I reported it, you see, in this letter. I called two of those recruits up, and those men generally have to get their uniform on credit, and they are in debt for it several months after they join the force. I asked those men how many pairs of pants they had. One man said “Four, if not five,” and the other said “Four.” I do not know how much they cost-perhaps about 50s. a pair-but they said they could not do with less, having to clean the stables and appear clean, and the same with their uniforms. I called the sergeant in charge, the Mounted Drill Instructor, and asked what was the meaning of this, and he told me, “Well, those were the orders ;” and I asked him if he had ever seen men at stables in any cavalry regiment in the British army compelled to appear in uniform, and he said, “No, certainly not.” He had also been in the Irish Constabulary, and he replied, as to that, “Certainly not, but those were his orders.” I made this report to the Chief Commissioner, and not the slightest notice was taken of it. When I was appointed Acting Commissioner, a year ago, I at once issued an order that the men should be allowed to attend at stables in any clothes they chose, and put a stop to that altogether. That will show how my reports were treated sometimes.
16905 Was the special advantage to be gained to the men the only consideration, not putting them to the necessity of getting so many suits?— Yes, and a man could not clean a horse in such a dress, and his dress would get so filthy and shabby that he would not be smart in his appearance.
16906 What about the costliness to the men themselves?— That was excessive.....
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