The Feilding Star, Oroua & Kiwitea Counties Gazette. Published Daily. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 1895. THE BURGLAR EPIDEMIC.

Feilding Star, Volume XVI, Issue 216, 13 March 1895, Page 2

The Feilding Star, Oroua & Kiwitea Counties Gazette. Published Daily. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 1895. THE BURGLAR EPIDEMIC.

In the Kmpire Ci ry th^re is? at vre sent a very considerable burglar scare i which will require some effort on the i part of the authorities to nihty. J'lip j alleged criminals are said to be not only skilful in their profession but for men of their c ass remarkably clarinp'. " Lockr. bolts and b-ir* soon fly asunder "af. fiicir b ■he-c, imd (he trembling- inmates of the houses entereil thus feloniously !'\irn when it is too late that the precautions they ' have taken for tin- protection of their i property from thieve.- and robbers, are all too feeble to resist the cult r- • ated intelligence of the modern Dill .Sykes, who is not ;:i ail like the forbidding- ruffian depicted by Dickens, but is very olun :i we'll dressed and outwardly weli behaved looking fellow — innocent. <<t deceit or yuile It is admitted that these criminals are not nt " our own make '" but hav^' been imported f;om tlie Australian Colonies or (j'reat Britain w!i,tc th-.-y . have (juaiin'od (or t heir profesaioii among the masters of the ort. It lollows that the demand in Wellington fer revolvers, bowie knives, and other lethal wearons which —by the way —as a rule — arc only dangerous t to the possessors thereof — because iio I one ever hears of th"in b'-iny used in the manner intended when they 3 <vere acquired —while tho roll of acrij dents to honest people from their j careless handling-, is a long- otic, flowever, that ir-" merely a detail. I hat th^ police force wili <li-p];iy the qualities id . tact and energy in eapiuniitj- iljesc pests to society, we are convinced, but hope they will not was;e so much ' valuable time— and opportunities — as in the case of the '! ara;.:iki highwayman, who unido Now i'lvuionth lively duiini;- his career. As it is more than likely .soin<' of the gang will deem it, prudent to retke to the Country while the (i scent is 8 hot" in Wellington, it behovi-.s rin: police in the towns iilonic the railway line to be on the alert, and to arrest 5 all suspicious characters who have apparently no visible li^itimate means - ol earning a living. We had a few miduig'ht prowlers aboui in Feil'iii-o-lately, but we feel justiried in aiiirm in»- they were lm re amateurs and somewhat clumsy ones at that.