SMART WORK

Hokitika Guardian, 21 September 1929, Page 5

SMART WORK

BY NEW ZEALAND POLICE.

(By Telegraph—Per Press Association.)

WELLINGTON, Sept. 21

As one of the finest eases of detective work in the Southern Hemisphere and should be an indication to citizens of tlie Dominion of what the New Zealand police can do, stated the Commissioner of Police, in reference to the arrest in Australia on Thursday of a bandit who is accused of holding up a storekeeper in Roseille and stealing £2O and shooting the .pursuing constable through the groin in the course of a. duel. At the time the criminal made good his escape, and the only clue left to the police was a case of' spectacles embossed with the name of a New Zealand maker. This' was submitted to a Sydney optician who gave a scientific description of the grinding of the glasses, which was immediately cabled to the New Zealand police. On Receipt of 'the communication, investigations were at once commenced and two hours later the name of the owner had been run to earth bv Auckland detectives, in the'records of an optician’s establishment in that city. Within a few hours of cablin'* the request, the man’s name,- and criminal history with - information that the New Zwiland police had already a photograph of the wanted man, were fovwnrded to headquarters in Sydney, and resulted in his arrest. Some time ago this man was the sitlbject of a sensational arrest in Auckland when with a woman accomplice he was pursued by the police and only overtaken after a long and exciting motor car Chase., Both were afterwards convicted on charges of burglary. \' The Commissioner of Police has received a cable from the New South Whiles Commissioner expressing appreciation of the co-operation and prompt action of the New Zealand police in dealing with the matter.