The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. SATURDAY, JULY 20, 1907. FINGER PRINTS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2137, 20 July 1907, Page 2

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. SATURDAY, JULY 20, 1907.

FINGER PRINTS.

One of the most interesting ientures of the annual report on the IS.A. Police Force is that relating to the progress that lias been made with tlie Finger Print Branch. Those who have not studied this question call scaroely realise the effectiveness ot this unique method of identification which is the most perfect that has vet been adopted. Eor many years what was known as the Bertillon system was employed at Scotland yard and on tho Continent for the identification of criminals. Most minute measurements were taken of every criminal who passed through the hands of the police, and every peculinrity in feature and manner was carefully noted. The result was far from successful. In the caso of a young mail nature worked such radical changes in a few years that the criminal of 1890 could not lie identified with the suspect of 1895, and disguises of various kinds completely baffled tho police. With the finger print system, however, the cleverest ' subterfuges are utterly useless. Oil the first appearance of an offender an impression is taken in indelible black ink of the tip of the forefinger and thereby a record is secured which will identify the particular individual concerned from the cradle to the grave. If impressions were secured from a million different persons no two would be alike, and it is a curious fact that the peculiar formation of the lines on tho same person’s fingers never varies in the least degree whether seen on the smooth and tender skin of the baby or the hard and horny hand of the toiling workman. Gases have been known where criminals in order to destroy tlie value of the record that had been" taken deliberately mutilated their hands. This was a useless infliction of pain for as soon as the outer skin grew again t'he old formation reappeared. Tlie adoption of the finger print, system in New Zealand is.of comparatively recent date, having ta'kcn place within the last year or two, but already remarkable results have been achieved. According to the report of the Commissioner of Police the police now have the finger print records of 6,151 offenders. During the past year 104 criminals, claiming to be first offenders, were by means of their finger-prints identified as previously convicted persons. Fingerprints' of prisoners in custody bore, whoso antecedent's wore unknown to our police, have been identified during tlie year at Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Hobart, Sydney, and Cape Town as those of Tier.sons previously convicted in those cities. During the Exhibition an officer of the fingerprint branch was temporarily stationed at Christchurch, with the result that two separate parties of housebreakers, who for a considerable time bad baffled the local police, and who had committed a number of burglaries, were brought to justice by the branch identifying their finger-prints which they had left on various articles they had handled in tho burgled houses. The detection of these offenders, remarks the Commissioner, doubtless had its effect upon other criminals of this class, as during tho whole of tho Exhibition Christchurch was remarkably free from offoncos of this description, and indeed from crime of any kind. Tho photographic portion of the branch works well, and supplies all photographs required by the Department in Wellington and in special cases elsewhere, besides photographing finger-prints for transmission abroad, enlarging them when necessary in Police Court cases, and photographing finger-prints discovered in criminal cases. Members of tho service, adds the Commissioner, are now becoming more impressed with the importance of the fingerprint system of identification, and greater care is exercised by them in searching for prints in criminal cases. The system is undoubtedly an excellent one and its adoption has proved to be a step in the right direction.