WHEN MONEY IS PLENTIFUL.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1471, 20 June 1912, Page 4

WHEN MONEY IS PLENTIFUL.

TIIE EFFECT ON CRIME.

It is a peculiar fact that when business itis dull and money scarce in this country •!'£ crime in nearly every grade tends to. diminish, and 1 coincidently there is a 'j; 'cline in the criminal population. Thcsa'jV:,:'; are facts attested by a number of experi-Sf'fe; enced police and .detective officers. "When . money is plentiful," one police official, remarked the other evening, "we are kept .« busy, but when money becomes scare?? and things ato quiet, we have an easy ' ; time." :■■■"• -A Detectives engaged in keeping waicKK."' ; over the ne'er-do-well class tell a similar story.. Somehow these vagrom seem to be-:-.-, .come aware of the approach of b<vd'tinieß;;Wi more 1 quickly than citizens who lead <>(?s■*> derly and respect-able lives. Many of Uwtjf thieves and vagabonds drift away, as soon' as the pinch of depression begins to 1 e > - - felt, to places where they can turn the'.?shifts and devices upon which they de-;:? : : ; . pend for 'a livelihood to more profitable.account. ■ The expense of travelling seems to sent fewer difficulties to them than to ' their more reputable fellow citizens. When . they are pushed for funds they have their owp: methods of solving the .problem -of.#}',' ways and means.

- Three men, for instance, will sometimes, travel upon two railway tickets, and some-, what.similar tricks and shifts are brought to bear upon the problem-of securing free passages at sea. . The theory that a climinutioitofjcireii.', latinjj wealth is attended by a diminution'.- 1 of crime lias-been -borne out,-bv. cxj«>ri- ,: cnce in Wellington during the" more or less ■ pronounced trade depressions;which" has obtained for some time pa«t.--M%^w