The Argus at KellyGang 18/10/1882
Both Superintendent WINCH and Sub inspector LARNER have demanded boards to inquire into and report upon their conduct, and Ministers have acceded to the request. As we have said before, the Government has practically no choice in the matter. It was bound to override the report of the Police Commission by granting these boards instead of giving effect to the report, unless it is prepared to take a much more serious stop and override the statute law. Nothing in the whole career of the Police Commission is more surprising than that it should have assumed judicial functions, and should have not only tried men in a fashion of its own, but should also have proceeded to pass sentence upon presumed offenders, thus usurping powers which were not conferred upon it, and which could not be conferred upon it. The commission has, indeed, no more right to degrade a civil servant than it has to send a criminal to Pentridge without reference to judge and jury.
Neither the Executive nor tho Governor in Council can assume the guilt of an officer, and then proceed to deal with him accordingly, and those powers cannot be delegated either by the Executive or the Governor in Council. In each and every instance the accused person is guaranteed a trial by law, and justice is wronged if that trial is sot aside by personal authority. Some of our contemporaries are assuming that Mr WINCH in particular, is guilty of the offences imputed to him, and that therefore the report of the commission should be acted upon. But the premises do not justify any such conclusion unless we are to admit that legal trials are superfluous, and can be ignored at pleasure. No doubt a prima, facie case of a grave character has been made out against both officers.
After the disclosures, the Government had no option but to put the law in operation, and ask Messrs WINCH and LARNER whether they admitted the accusations, or whether they demanded a board, and this differentiates their cases from those previously dealt with. In those instances there was no evidence whatever against the officers whom the commission sought to punish; in these cases evidence exists. "What Messrs WINCH and LARNER are entitled to is justice, and the Ministers have rightly decreed they shall have with its possibly unpleasant consequences. What the commission desired was Lynch law.
At the meeting of the Police Commission yesterday Messrs Longmore (chairman) Fincham, and Dixon were present. Mr F T Sargood was examined with reference to the young man named Patrick Boardman, who charges the detective police with having persistently persecuted him. The witness stated that, at the request of Mr Boardman, sen., he got Patrick Boardman employment in the boot factory owned by his firm in Dunedin, New Zealand, and that he was subsequently told by Mr. Boardman, sen., that his son had had to leave the factory because the Victorian detective police had caused it to be made known at Dunedin that the son had been convicted in Australia. Mr Sargood stated that he was not personally aware that the information as to Patrick Boardman was sent by the detectives here, and that they had given him no such information, and he further stated that while Boardman was in the employ of the firm he behaved very well.
The remainder of the sitting was held with closed doors. A written statement by Patrick Boardman was read in which he reviewed some evidence given by Detective Duncan before the commission, and reaffirmed that the detectives were aware some days before it happened that the attempt to rob the Commercial Bank at Hotham in August, 1877, was to be made, and that Detective Duncan had used threats to him to induce him to give information about his accomplices in that affair. The commission also considered the application to the Government by Superintendent Winch and Sub inspector Larner for a board of inquiry into the charges formulated against them, on which the commission have given in their finding. They resolved to suspend their sittings until the result of the application is known. It is understood that if the Government submits such charges to a board, the commission will feel aggrieved.
On the motion of Mr Hall, the Police Commission has notified to the Chief Secretary its approval of the proposal that any vacancies among the officers of the police should be filled without waiting for its report on the question of organisation. The force has been administered for some time past at a great disadvantage, in consequence of the vacancies caused by the retirement of some officers, particularly Captain Standish, Superintendents Nicolson and Hare and the deaths of Inspectors Baber, Brook Smith and others. The full strength, of officers above the rank of sergeant. as recommended by the chief commissioner, will be 21, but scarcely more than half that number are at present on duty. He will now be in a position to give effect to his scheme for the improvement of the force, which has been suspended pending the action of the commission. Until the estimates of the department have been approved he will not he able to add to the number of constables.
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