267
PUBLIC PECORD
OFFICE
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Reference :-
C.O.882/12
44
This is the effective strength of the Force. In addition there is the non-effective strength consisting of a Fireman, two Messengers, and 17 Labourers.
Every member of the effective strength is provided with barrack or private quarters or a lodging allowance in lieu.
16. The Royal Commission of 1909 made a number of recom- mendations for the reorganization of the Mauritius Police Force which were designed to improve its quality while considerably reducing its numbers. Certain of the Commission's recommenda- tions and other important changes including a general increase in the rates of pay have since been carried out, with the result that the numerical strength of the Force has now been reduced by 121 but its standard of efficiency has been greatly improved.
Recruitment for the rank of Cadet has now ceased, and the surviving members of the grade are being gradually absorbed into the ranks of Sergeants and Corporals according to the degree of their proficiency on the completion of their training. With the class of recruits which is now coming forward, many of the Royal College and Secondary School boys, it is thought no longer to be necessary to offer the inducement of preferential terms of entry in order to attract young men of superior quality, a fact which shows that the rates of pay and conditions of service compare favourably with those of ordinary clerical employment in Mauritius. 17. The local organization of the Force is based on the District Magistrates' districts. Each district is in the charge of au Inspector, assisted by a Sub-Inspector, and, in the cases of Port Louis and Rose Hill, two Sub-Inspectors. Of the three remaining Inspectors one is on the personal staff of the Inspector-General, another is in charge of the Motor Traffic Branch, and the third in that of the Criminal Investigation Department where, he is assisted by a Sub-Inspector. The rank and file of the Force other than those of the various Headquarters establishments are distri- buted throughout the island in small local units under non-com- missioned officers ranking from Sergeant-Major to Corporal accord- ing to the size and importance of the unit.
Notwithstanding the reduction in numbers which has been effected since the Royal Commission's report, the organization of the Police Force is more than adequate for its present work. The size of the Colony is slightly less than that of Surrey, its total population is only 397,000, of which about 120,000 is concentrated in five or six compact and well-lit townships, and yet there are as many as 52 separate police stations, all except four in charge of non-com- missioned officers, and all except three with a local unit of more than two men. Not a single spot even in the most mountainous and thinly-populated districts is more than five miles distant from a police station, and the whole coat-line is girdled with a ring of no less than 21 stations, many of them only two or three miles
apart. When it is considered that the crime statistics of the Colony are remarkably good, serious or violent crime being of rare occur- rence, there can be no other conclusion than that these numerous police units must spend the greater part of their time in purely routine duties. We were not surprised, therefore, that the Inspector-General agreed without hesitation that his Force as now organized could take over a considerable increase of work without addition to its numbers. But for that admission we should have felt compelled to propose a reduction in the number of the police stations and in the strength of the units maintained in the smaller villages and more sparsely-populated areas.
18. The same feature of administration meets us here as in the case of several other departments. The need for effective local organization and the demand of the public for the fullest local facilities have led the departments to establish their outposts throughout the island; there are Deputy Postmasters and there are District Cashiers, each continually receiving money from or paying money to the public; there are Medical Officers in charge of hospitals and Medical Officers in charge of health; there are Civil Status Officers and there are Dispensers who are in touch with the same class of work as part of the Poor Law administra- tion. The result is that everywhere there are officers who are not fully employed and who could undertake the work which is being done by others. This system or want of system offends against every principle of sound administration as well as of economy, and we have endeavoured to deal with it by proposing, wherever prac- ticable, the transfer of so much of the overlapping or cognate functions as is necessary to provide full employment for the depart- ment which is compelled for other reasons to maintain a widely distributed whole-time service and the abolition or reduction of the local service maintained by the other departments affected.
In the case of the Police, we find that, while they are well organized and capable of taking over additional work, yet there are other bodies which are engaged in carrying out duties of an essentially Police character and are to some extent overlapping them in the performance of these duties. We refer to the various quasi-Police Forces attached to other Departments of Government, viz., the Inland Revenue Inspectors and Guards, to the number of 26 who are employed to prevent illicit distillation, the falsifica- tion of weights and measures, the evasion of the animals and vehicles tax, and the contravention of the Licence Ordinances; the Forestry Rangers and Guards, numbering 38, whose sole duty is the policing of Crown Forests and Mountain and River Forest Reserves to prevent or detect depredations thereon; and the Fishery Inspector and Guards, numbering 14, who are engaged in search- ing for infringements of the Fishery Ordinance which limits the mesh dimensions of nets used for the coastal fishing within the reefs and prohibits the use of any nets at all in certain Fishery
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