At Police headquarters in Wellington there are two Assistant Commissioners responsible to the Commissioner. The Assistant Commissioner at headquarters longest in office is the Commissioner's deputy and assumes control in his absence. He is also responsible to the Commissioner for various headquarters sections – communications, civil defence, search and rescue, the arms bureau, and the handling of inter-departmental affairs and overseas correspondence.

A Chief Superintendent is responsible to the Assistant Commissioner for the administration of research and planning, police training, and the operation of the training school at Trentham, the personnel section, the police-dog unit, and police vehicles. These sections are each in the charge of a commissioned officer or a non-commissioned officer. The other Assistant Commissioner is in charge of the CIB administration on a national basis and is also responsible for the Criminal Records Bureau and its associated activities – fingerprints, photography, information, statistics, the Police Gazette, and its photographic supplement.

In the Police Headquarters organisation there is also a Superintendent of Staff, who is responsible for all transfers of constables and sergeants, housing as a result of transfers, and sport; a solicitor, who looks after all legal problems arising from police work; a director of medical services who advises the Commissioner on all medical matters affecting the Police; a secretary who, with the help of an administration officer, controls all civilian staff in the Department and its financial affairs; and a public relations officer who is the Department's and the Minister's press officer, responsible for all general publicity.

The New Zealand Police Association, formed in 1936, speaks for individual constables and non-commissioned members of the Police. Above non-commissioned rank staff interests are represented by the Police Officers' Guild. The movement began in Auckland, the first attempt being made in 1913 to form the association. The effort broke down, however, in the face of opposition from the Minister of Justice. Provision was made for non-commissioned members to join the Public Service Association, but this proved unsuccessful. Police members were thus left without any effective organisation until 1935, when the Government acceded to a proposal to form a police association. Present membership is about 2,500. Each of the 15 police districts annually elects a district committee, sending a delegate to an annual conference in Wellington. The general secretary of the organisation is the only paid officer, and is not a member of the Police.

The New Zealand Police Officers' Guild was set up in 1955, its secretary and executive being located in Wellington. Its objects are to provide a channel of direct approach to the Commissioner, or to the Minister, if need be, on matters affecting the Police in general and commissioned officers in particular; to provide harmony among commissioned officers; and to assist the Commissioner in his task of controlling the Police in its service to, and in the interests of, the Government and public.

The Commissioner from time to time consults the guild and outlines administrative changes he may have in mind.

• 1900 – 11 officers, 20 detectives, 56 sergeants, 504 constables – a total of 591.

• 1920 – 1,325 all ranks.

• 1938 – 1,715 all ranks.

The strength of the Police remained about this figure until 1955, when it was realised that this was inadequate to match the increase in population. A target of 2,400 was set and reached in December 1958, at which time the Police began to work a five-day week. In 1965 the strength was about 2,700.

Although provision was made in 1938 for the appointment of policewomen, it was not until 1941 that the first six were sworn in. At first they were not in uniform and were mainly on office duties. The first uniformed policewomen went on outside duty in 1949 and the present regulation uniform was finally adopted in 1952. The outdoor duties of a policewoman are basically the same as for the male police officer and include patrol work. Uniformed policewomen carry handcuffs, but find the sight of their uniforms is usually a deterrent to bad behaviour. In 1958 the first woman passed the police sergeants' examination to qualify for promotion. In 1962, a policewoman passed the examination for senior sergeant, the first to do so.

Women have been admitted to the CIB since 1956, all having seen service in the uniform branch. The duties of women members of the CIB are again much the same as for male detectives, with emphasis on thefts, false pretences, assaults, and crimes against women and children.

At the end of March 1965 there were 51 policewomen in the New Zealand Police. Applicants must be between the ages of 20 years (the entry age was lowered at the beginning of 1963 from 23 years to 20 years) and 33, at least 5 ft 5 in. tall, of good health, of proved character, and of British nationality.

At national headquarters in Wellington (staff and administrative officers) is the Criminal Investigation (Detective) Branch (CIB), which has existed since the civil Police Force was formed in 1886. A CIB is attached to each district headquarters and its members undertake the investigation and detection of the more serious offences in the district. Entry to the CIB is from the uniform branch. When a constable has had beat-duty experience he may apply for a transfer to the CIB. Acceptance depends not only on his general qualifications, such as good education and personality, but also on the zeal and intelligence he has shown as a constable. During his two years on beat duty he will have taken an in-service training course on general police work, and the marking of his papers will also have a bearing on his acceptance for the CIB.

The CIB is one of several specialist sections – others are the prosecutions section, telecommunications section, juvenile crime prevention section, ballistics section, and the dog unit. There are also some specialist sections within the branch.

The New Zealand police service is moulded to the British pattern, except for its national organisation with central headquarters control. In Britain the service is divided into autonomous Constabularies.

A military officer, first, Major Gudgeon (1887–90) and then Lieutenant Colonel A. Hume (1890–97), remained in charge of the Police Force until the first Police Commissioner, J. B. Tunbridge (1898–1903), was appointed. He was an experienced officer from England and had also served for several years in the Armed Constabulary. The system of appointing the Commissioner from the ranks continued from this time, and the principle that “every constable potentially carries the Commissioner's baton” is highly valued.

In 1958 a new Police Act was passed in which the word “Force” was discarded, and now the proper title is “The New Zealand Police”. Today the New Zealand Police is a Government Department, though it is recruited, organised, and governed somewhat differently from others. It is established by an Act of Parliament and is under the control of a Cabinet minister who is responsible for policy and overall administration. But direct control is the responsibility of a Commissioner.

For organisational purposes New Zealand is divided into 15 districts, each being under the control of a commissioned officer who has the responsibility for law and order in his area. Each district has a central station, from which are controlled subsidiary and suburban stations. Altogether there are 352 police stations.

The first Police Training School was opened at Mount Cook, Wellington, in 1898. Training continued to be given in the Wellington area until 1953, when a training school was opened in Lyttelton. In 1955, when a rapid expansion of the Police was decided upon, a new centre was established at Trentham, near Wellington. This school not only trains recruits and cadets but also provides short courses for sergeants, senior sergeants, detectives, and commissioned officers. The barracks, with sleeping accommodation for 180, are normally full. Facilities include recreation rooms, canteen, library, gymnasium, and assembly hall. Nearby are playing fields, rifle ranges, and swimming baths.

To join the New Zealand Police an applicant must meet certain standards. He must be at least 19 years of age (17 in the case of a cadet) and not more than 35 and be at least 5 ft 8½ in. tall, well built, in first-class health, and of good eyesight and hearing. He must produce references to character and show he has not been convicted of any criminal offence. He must pass an educational test. The recruit then undergoes a 13-week training course at Trentham; for cadets it is 19 months. Training is not complete at the end of this period. For the next 21 months the recruit, posted to a station, takes an in-service training course in law. When this is completed he sits an examination for permanent employment.

The first rules and regulations governing the police in New Zealand were issued in 1852 and included a summary of the principal duties of the Constabulary prescribed by British law. When provincial councils were formed in 1853, provincial police forces were set up in Auckland, Wellington, and Canterbury, and, later, in Otago.

The new colony kept its house in order fairly well, especially in the towns. In 1857, according to a newspaper, “Wellington and Auckland each have a smart police force of about 20 men…. theft and violence are particularly rare”. Police duty consisted of keeping the peace among “tipsy sailors, sawyers and bush settlers” and “occasionally capturing and incarcerating them”. When the gold rushes occurred in the early sixties the police on the goldfields often had a hard time keeping the peace. Many crimes of violence and theft were committed. Among those who came seeking their fortunes were desperadoes, some escaped criminals from Australia. In certain provinces, notably Otago, a strong police force had to be created and in this respect St. John Branigan gave outstanding service.

It was not until 1886, when Parliament passed the Police Force Act, that New Zealand had a national civil police force. In New Zealand's first 46 years police work had always been a part of other duties; in the Armed Constabulary the New Zealand military forces and the police have a common national origin. From this time onwards policemen were unarmed and carried out their duties in a community which respected the law. The use of firearms, except in grave emergencies, was neither desired by the Force nor considered necessary to keep order.

In the years immediately prior to the establishment of British sovereignty in New Zealand, its European population, which was scattered along the coast in tiny settlements, had an unenviable reputation for lawlessness. As early as 1813 the authorities at New South Wales had made a vain effort to bring law and order to the country, and pioneer missionaries, such as Samuel Marsden, worked hard for the cause of peace. In 1833 the appointment of James Busby as British Resident at the Bay of Islands gave promise of better things, but he had no effective means of upholding his position. It was left to the initiative of the Europeans to take steps to enforce law and order. At Kororareka in 1838 they formed an association consisting of a president and committee of management. The thirteenth article of its code ordered each member to provide himself with a good musket, a bayonet, a brace of pistols, a cutlass, and some 60 rounds of ball cartridge.

This was the position when Captain William Hobson arrived at the Bay of Islands in late January 1840 armed with the commission of British Consul and with authority to negotiate with the Maoris a treaty (Waitangi) for the cession of sovereignty to the Crown. Hobson had no military force to uphold his authority; all that Gipps, the Governor of New South Wales, could do was to provide him with a sergeant and four troopers of the mounted police. Before he left England, however, Hobson had been told that it might be advisable to raise a militia or constitute a police force. But Hobson had his hands full with other matters. Although from 1840 magistrates had exercised their powers to appoint selected citizens as policemen, it was not until 9 October 1846 that an ordinance for the establishment and maintenance of a constabulary force was passed. In it the police force was described as “a sufficient number of fit and able men who would serve as an ‘armed force’ for preserving the peace and preventing robberies and other felonies and apprehending offenders against the peace”.

(1807–82).

Author, artist, trader, and cosmopolitan.

A new biography of Polack, Joel Samuel appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.

Joel Samuel Polack was born in London on 28 March 1807 of well-to-do Jewish parents and was educated privately in England and on the Continent. When barely out of his teens he left home to embark on a life of globetrotting which brought him to New Zealand in 1831. During his roving existence he had been many things before he set up a general store at Kororareka seven years before the Treaty of Waitangi was signed. He had been an artist in Europe, a gold miner in California, a commissariat and ordnance officer in South Africa, and a ship's chandler in Australia. Then in 1831 he sailed from Sydney for New Zealand and spent two unsatisfactory years at Hokianga before going into business at Kororareka, at that time an unruly and turbulent settlement where Maori-Pakeha relations were frequently dangerously strained. At this time he began to be interested in the purchase of land, not as a jobber of the kind that was to be found everywhere, but as an investor. He bought about 1,100 acres in all, and became somewhat unpopular by paying as much as £6 10s. an acre for some of it. There were those who regarded him as a land shark, but the injustice of such allegations was later demonstrated when a considerable portion of his land claims was recognised by the Court of Claims set up to investigate land deals.

Polack did well at Kororareka, mainly because of his uncanny knack of coping amicably with Maoris in all their moods. He laughed at their peccadilloes and their violence in the same friendly fashion, a policy in which he was greatly assisted by a quickly acquired fluency in the Maori tongue. His trading venture, however, came to a sudden end in 1838 when his premises, part of which had been used against his wishes for the storage of military and naval explosives, were blown skyhigh. For years he fought a losing battle for compensation of £1,000 for his loss, but despite a favourable recommendation from Earl Grey, the Government decided in 1841 that it would take no action.

At this stage he returned to England for a visit. While in London, as a member of the Colonial Society, he gave evidence in 1838 before a Select Committee of the House of Lords, stating a case for the colonisation of New Zealand. He had gained a more than superficial knowledge of the machinery of Empire before going to New Zealand and his views were well received. During his absence from this country he published two books, New Zealand; Being a Narrative of Travels and Adventures in the Country between 1831 and 1837, which appeared in 1838, and Manners and Customs of New Zealanders, in 1840. He profited considerably by both books. Polack returned to New Zealand after the proclamation of British sovereignty, and settled in Auckland where he remained until he went to California in 1849. He died in San Francisco on 17 April 1882.

Notwithstanding an extremely florid style and a tendency towards pedantry and prolixity, both books represent valuable documentaries of the strange precolonisation history of New Zealand. In both of them Polack exhibits himself as an informed and sympathetic observer both of Maori and of Pakeha, and they give an insight into the personality of one who must have cut an oddly compelling figure among the rude whalers and semi-cannibal inhabitants of Kororareka and Hokianga in the 1830s. Because he had a fairly intimate knowledge of the native races of two or three continents, Polack was well equipped to make the most of his relations with the Maoris. He wrote about them with liveliness and humour, and his second book on manners and customs gained much from his exact and intelligent drawings with which it was profusely illustrated. In New Zealand's earliest history he comprises a notable and unusual figure, to be remembered for the informativeness of his observations and for the remarkable tact and understanding he displayed in his dealings with a race which was slowly adjusting itself with difficulty to the steady expansion of European influence. Polack is also remembered for his duels (1837 and 1842) with a Kororareka innkeeper, Ben Turner.

by Ronald Jones, Journalist and Script Writer, New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation, Wellington.

• British Resident's Letters (MSS), National Archives
• Dominion, 12 Nov 1938.

Christmas tree (Metrosideros excelsa).

This is the best known of New Zealand coastal trees because of its attractive wide-spreading habit and the profusion of red flowers it bears about Christmas time. Although confined naturally to the Three Kings, the North Island coast down to Poverty Bay and Urenui, and the shores of lakes on the volcanic plateau, the tree is widely planted even well south of these limits.

It grows to 60 ft high and the trunk, which divides early, is some 6 ft through at the base. Masses of small fibrous roots sometimes hang down from the lower branches. The leaves are 1–3 in. long, elliptic, and covered below with a tight mat of hairs. Flowers are borne in terminal cymes. The buds are whitish before they break and the numerous stamens, which give the flower its colour, are shades of crimson and red. The capsules contain numerous tiny seeds which germinate on damp clay or in rock crevices.

The genus Metrosideros contains other outstanding native trees, in particular the northern and southern ratas, M. robusta and M. umbellata. It belongs to the myrtle family containing eucalypts which are the main natural foods of the Australian opossum. In New Zealand this animal feeds on pohutukawas and destroys some.

by Alec Lindsay Poole, M.SC., B.FOR.SC., F.R.S.N.Z., Director-General of Forests, Wellington.