Every Person In Wairoa To Be Fingerprinted

Chronicle (Levin), 4 January 1949, Page 3

Every Person In Wairoa To Be Fingerprinted

NAPIER, Jan. 2. A vital finger.print left by tbe muv- | Lcrer of Herbert William JBrunton who 1 vas killed in his hut at Wairoa two and i i-half weeks ago niay: lead the the | dller. j Working systematicallv froin diouse ! ;o house and street by street the police I )lan to take fingerprints of every | idult of near adult person in Wairoa | rnd district in their search for the mur- | (lcrer. It is likely that the fingerprint- j ing of Wairoa 's population of between 3000 and 4000 will take soine months. i In addition there is the complication of ^ dealing with the large floating popula- , tion of sliearers and other seasonal workers. Working to a well-ordered plan police teains are slowly but surely ehecking the fingerprints of every man and , womau from adolescent age upward. Taking the fingerprints occupics but little time but many hours are lost eaeh weck in explanation to the subject and recording the details of persons dealt with. When the Smith sisters were done ;to death at Wairoa in 1942 police took statements from every person in Wairoa and the district in an efliort to throw some light on this particularly brutal criine. Again on this occasion statements are being reeorded from every tfesident, as well as the fingerprints. Thus it will be seen that' the police iile on the case, already of substantial proportions, will have reached huge dimensions in the space of a few months.