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Hokitika Guardian, 23 January 1930, Page 4

The guardians of law and order in all the principal centres have been very successful of late in sheeting home d ime to the wrong-doers. The record of the New Zealand police over the past few months in the matter of clever arrests bf serious criminals, has been quite remarkable. Just for a while all the luck of the game appeared to be with the criminals, but the special diligence of the police had its reward. The game of course was not one of pure luck. The police were organised on special vigilant lines. In places, the force was augmented, and a ceaseless watch was kept. \ This virtuous task had its reward, and thanks to the good sense of the officers in emergency, clean captures were made. iSor is the work yet finished. The good work is being continued in the north where a. clever capture was made the other night after a. patient wait for tne return of the offenders. The success of the police in various centres, gives hope that even in our own midst the doings’ of the so-called fire-fiend might lie brought to a satisfactory close. . Fires are recurring here in such' a manner that satisfaction will not be felt till the cause is revealed. We suggest that the police here, as elsewhere, should be so organised as to pursue the matter with equal persistency and vigilance. There are certain aids employed by the police, which if adopted here and developed with the same scrupulous care as was taken elsewhere, might give immediate clues when arrests are made, to other undiscovered offenders. These matters need not be elaborated here, but such aids have been most successful in sheeting home crime, and a measure-of success .might result here if the similar steps were taken in respect to our local investigations regarding crime. Just as- alarm and unrest were created in Christchurch and elsewhere by successive crimes going undiscovered for a period, so here also there is a state of unsetflement, and the sooner it is allayed the better. . The police liavq proved their ability to cope with serious crime in many places of late, and we would ask that a like degree of special vigilance might be -extended here in the effort to run to earth the offender or offenders who are bent on repeating a class of. crime -which is all too common, and which 1 at times carries very considerable loss in its train. Many centre? have occasion to he grateful to- the police fpr the success of their late efforts, - and it would be very pleasing indeed if Hokitika were brought l into the same category.