CRIME BY NATIVES

Hokitika Guardian, 11 June 1930, Page 5

CRIME BY NATIVES

POLICE MEASURES IN SOUTH

.AFRICA

The criminal tendencies of the worst chtsses of natives in the big South African towns, and the methods which the police took to trace .the criminals formed an interesting part ot a talk given to the Referees’ Association last week by Air J. Burrows, on his experiences when touring with the All Blacks. ‘‘With a pure native stock, thefullblooded Zulus and the otliei -various tribes which come under the general term of Kaffir, there is little, danger as far as whites are concerned,” said ,Mr Burrows. “It is where there 1s a mixed strain, and the white blood has crept in that there is trouble., I was on the site of a murder at the Zoo at Johannesburg. A few days before 1 was there, a girl from a Training College had selected a secluded spot in the grounds to practise a dance for .the College Revue. It. came on to rain, and she went under some trees tor shelter. A native attacked her and she was most brutually murdered. The police apparently took no action at ill There was one clue, and that was that the murderer had cut off part of the body, and taken it away with him. There is a native belief, a hit of the work of the witch doctors, that if they do this they will escape all punishment. About three months ago I read that a native had been arrested and hung for the murder The police there never seen to act, or start, but sooner or later they g their man, and he is hanged. Ti me are no half measures. If a assaults a woman he is hanged That j s m ainlv for the protection of the womenfolk. ~ „ Tn another instance, fifteen natives V-'led a white woman while her hushj'vid was away. They escaped from a compound- Months later one of the bes t detective disguised h.msel as a Kaffir, and worked for a long.time m the compound. In the end, lie go whole fifteen.” _____