The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1878-05-14 00:00:00

THE DORCHESTER BOROUGH POLICE
FORCE.
To Lk Editor.

81r,—Probably few matters have attracted more
attention of late than the subject of the borough
police fond and the heavy expense it entails upon the
I town; and, as the question still continues to excite a
good deal of public interest, I think it only right and
I fair that the ratepayers should be made fully ac-
quainted with the toutscrissrp taxation they are
called upon to bear in order to maintain the prevent
costly forc•—• force that owes ita existence at the
present time solely toe bigoted determination, on the
port of some of our wiseacre., to maintain
In their own hands one of the few remaining rade'
of local pelf-control, no matter at what oust to the
ratepayers' pocketa, so long as they can still perpetuate
their own pet system.
But happily the time has arrived when the rate-
payers have determined to be hoodwinked no longer
In this matter of local self-government, which is used
only as • subterfuge to conceal their profligate and
wasteful expenditure; and, unless the advocates of the
present imam can satisfactosily demonstrate that we
are deriving some substantiel benefits therefrom, the
ratepayers very naturally Weld upon being relieved
of an incubus which is not only uncalled for but like-
wise oppressive and naiad. For my own part lam
bound to admit I have never seen any of the advan-
tages which are claimed as speriallr =lng to •
system which, happily, only but • very motion
04 Nllll flounce are now so enamoured ; and therefore
the sooner some alteration is brought about this better,
not only for the protection of the ratepayers them-
selves, but for the general interests of the town at
lap. This, I am given to understand, could be
easily effected by the introduction of tbe county police,
which would lead to an important saving to the town,
without in any way impairing the due and proper
administration of louden.
Facts, we know, are stubborn things, and, as I
happen to be in possession of the treasurer's account
for the past year, giving the cost of the borough police
force up to September lad, perhaps • few particulars
therefrom may not be considered out of place, and
may help to establish the argument for which I am
contending, and which cannot, I think, be easily
controverted, even by the strangest advocates for the
maintenance of the present system. From the docu-
ment. I. question—which mod be looked upon as a
kind of rens ads in its way, so madam dam it dad It.
way into the hands of the outside public, and which
has only just now made its appearance after ten
months' delay—l learn that lb. expenditure on
acoound of the police amounted to no less a snot than
8617 lib. 64. Ix? and, as I can find no return of any
portion of this having been refunded from Govern.
went, I am bound, in Indies to the treasurer, to
aoospt this as • tree raters of the adnal cost of the
force for lone twelvemonth. To my great astonish-
ment on referring to Bridport (here they have the
county police), with a population numbering conelder-
ably more than that of Dorahoster,l and the annual
contribution for polioe purposes—the force °auditing
of 00111 sergeant and five constabise—amounts to only
(1215, the bulk of th• population at the same time
being of • widely different clam to that of Dorchester
where the Inhablt.nie have invariably proved theta
selves to be a reepectable and law-abiding oommanity,
People naturally, and with good moon, too, ask what
should °amnion suck • vast and inexplicable
Mariam in the expense, of two borough@ so very
In many rasped& To this, as fir as I can ese,
there seams blot only one answer, and thie points eon
elusively to • pave mistake on the part of the
authorities !n Continuing the present expensive
'puma um& ;:t. I contensi, to be tolerated no
t die order id dee dog
almost every public department 1(.7"
therefore, should the 'Bawer be oompelles 10 kik"
up an uassorsarili large and expensive polies form
when leaf the present red* mold nibs ? To I
WINO Ihat ask mak the are I rimy wissioa is'