Back up the Paddy wagon, this time I find agreement with closing a Police station.

My earliest Memories of the thin blue line include Joe Burrell manning the Culverden Police station, well from his house with an old lockup behind?
Back then c1950, no one and I mean no one was going to give Joe more than perhaps mild disagreement they were not too alcohol affected to drive a car.

A police constable alone was in zero danger of any attack, they were the law.

Canterbury Area Commander Superintendent Tony Hill has announced a series of moves to meet modern policing and predictably normal rational people can not see trees in woods.

Back in the day one unlawful killing was almost an annual event now one a day is not unusual.
Burglary, theft, assault, domestic violence, vehicle accidents, are commonplace to the extent they must be prioritised as to response and most know a burglary will only be responded to if nothing else is on offer.
I am guessing, but I will suggest Joe Burrell would have had a lot of down time and patrolling the vicinity of a country dance on a Saturday Night the nearest he would come to peak involvement.
In these troubled times almost any callout will be assessed for danger to the thin blue line and sending a lone police person to a brawl just plain nuts.

Better roads, faster communications, faster cars, have replaced need for fully manned stations throughout rural areas. My involvement with the Rakaia Gorge Society Camp and petty crime has demonstrated the more often than not closed station at Methven is an acceptable inconvenience and very likely economic inanity

I consider more closures and the addition of an “Eagle Helicopter ” far more productive for Canterbury Area Crime response

Just employing road access there is very limited parts of Superintendent Hills Patch beyond an Hour from his proposed Rangiora and Rolleston stations supplementing CH CH Central.
Add in the rapid advances in comms and surveillance equipment now available, public and private being expanded every day, the replacement of the sole cop is apparent as an anachronism, almost equivalent to the demise of the saddlery shop and the wheel wright, buggy whips if you will.