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HANTS QUARTER SESSIONS.

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     Mr. PORTAL read the Report of the Public Works Committee, which stated that the new Police-station at Lyndhurst had been completed, and was now occupied, and that the police-stations at Southampton, Havant, and Petersfield, were being carried on to the satisfaction of the committee, and all in an advanced state of forwardness, and that those of Basingstoke and Droxford would be commenced almost immediately, and further that the committee had received an offer of a desirable site for a police-station at Fordingbridge, which they would recommend the Court to accept and empower the committee to enter into a contract for its erection which was agreed to.

POLICE.

     The Clerk of the Peace read the Report the Chief Constable, Capt. Forest, which contained a recommendation that Alverstoke should be constituted a separate district for the Inspection of Weights and Measures, and also a statement that the Government Inspector had recently paid his annual visit to this county and had inspected the constabulary force; and that he had expressed himself satisfied with their efficiency and discipline. Mr. Stanley read the Report of the Select Committee appointed to take into consideration a memorial which had been presented to the Court by the Superintendents of the County Police, praying therein for an increase of pay. The Committee would bring to the recollection of the Court that the Superintendents are divided into three classes, and that all of them of the first class receive 105l., of the second class 95l., and the third class 85l. per annum. The memorialists state that since that amount of pay was established, increased duties have been thrown upon them without any augmentation of salary; but the Committee were of opinion that which is alleged is not in itself an adequate reason for an increase of salary, as the moment a constable enters the force his whole available time and energies are entirely to be devoted to the performance of his duties as a police-constable, and he is restricted from engaging himself in any other employ. That upon the point upon which the Superintendents appear to lay great stress, namely, the high rate of pay which constables have obtained who have left the police of this county and become superintendents in other counties, after having received their police training and experience under the control and teaching of the memorialists, the Committee would wish to direct the attention of the Court to the real circumstances under which this increase of pay to the recently appointed superintendents in other forces had taken place. It would be in the recollection of the Court that in the Sessions of 1856, that Sir George Grey, the then Home Secretary, carried through Parliament an Act making it imperative on the authorities of all counties and boroughs to establish police forces in their different localities. This measure opened a wide field of employment for constables of good character and sufficient experience, and the market for this necessary class of officers was consequently raised, the competition between counties to secure efficient officers being great; but the Committee would remind the Court that the subject of the Superintendents' pay had been maturely settled by the Court, and that only a few years since their salaries were increased to their present amount, making it as the Justices then considered adequate for the services rendered; and the Committee was therefore of opinion that the county should not always be bound by the acts of its neighbours, especially when originating in sudden and temporary causes. Upon the memorialists' statement, that they were loth to quit the service of the county to seek higher remuneration elsewhere, in the hope that the magistrates would not allow them to be sufferers on account of their devotion to the county, the Committee, whilst giving full credit to these zealous and meritorious officers for their patriotism, evinced in the admirable manner in which they have performed their duties, cannot but remark that their remaining in the county is, in their opinion, not solely actuated by devotion to the county,  but is also to accounted for in a certain degree by feelings of self-preservation, inasmuch as the consequence of leaving their present situations to take service in another county would disentitle them to any superannuation, as the Act of Parliament does not recognise a continuance of that allowance on removal from force to force. The Committee would now come to the only strong point in the memorialists' favour, namely, length of service; and the Committee could not but regard this circumstance as one which the Court would do well to recognize. It appeared by a return, furnished by the Chief Constable, that five of the first-class superintendents have completed fifteen years service; five of the second class, seven years; and one of third class and also the inspector, seven years. The Committee would, therefore, recommend some reward for these lengthened services, and that all superintendents who have already served or shall hereafter complete seven years' service as superintendents or inspectors, shall be entitled to receive an additional 5l. a-year, and those who have served fifteen years shall be entitled to an increase of another 5l. a-year: that in all new appointments as superintendents and inspectors in the force the pay shall commence according to the present existing scale; that, in consequence of the slowness of promotion of a sergeant to be a superintendent, two years service as sergeant should be deemed equivalent to one year's service as superintendent. 

     Mr. STANLEY then moved that the recommendation of the Committee be adopted by the Court. 

     Mr. MULCOCK seconded the motion, observing that he considered  the superintendents were fairly entitled to a higher remuneration than they now receive. 

     Mr. PORTAL said that, without his going into the merits of the case, he thought the Court would be taken by surprise if the motion was pressed to a division, and questioned whether it was competent for the Court to entertain it, as the notice had not appeared in the agenda paper. 

     Mr. STANLEY said he was quite in order, for this was an excepted case, as the agenda paper had been published prior to the Committee agreeing to their recommendation. 

     Mr. PORTAL still pressed that the matter should stand over till the next Sessions, to which Mr. Stanley reluctantly agreed, on the understanding that the superintendents should not suffer by the delay.