THE GUNN CASE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 2135, 1 June 1920, Page 3

THE GUNN CASE.

EFFICACY OF FINGER-PRINT SYSTEM.

Auckland, Yesterday

The public interest aroused by the Ponsonby murder ease is more keen than that occasioned by any A. tickland crime since the notorious Great Barrier murder in 188(5, the sequel to which was the execution of Caffray and Penn in February of the following year.- There is general satisfaction with fhe verdict of the jury, and the efficacy' of Ihe fingerprint system of identification, which has been so strikingly demonstrated in the case, Ims made a great impression upon the public mind. The Star, in an editorial upon the case, remarks: “The trial may become the leading ease in the records of crime for its complete vindication of the finger-prints system. There can have been few trials in which so much turned upon finger-print evidence, and those who built up this part of the Crown’s case, with so much labour and skill, will have the satisfaction of knowing not only that their work satislied the jury and the Judge, but that they have strengthened the value to he placed on such evidence throughout the world. One can foresee eases in which the defence, in attempting to overcome finger-print evidence, will be met by a citation of the Auckland trial. It was a fortunate circumstance that Mr -Justice Chapman, who presided, has made a scientific study of the finger-print system, and there is already on record in the New Zealand law reports an able summing up by him in another ease which, like the Auckland trial, depended very largely upon the value of this system of identifiea-

tion. Public opinion will second the commendation of the conduct of the police that his Honour gave from the Bench. He rightly said that they have shown the greatest diligence and intelligence, and at the same time the most absolute fairness to the prisoner. When the murder was committed the case looked the outsider on the available facts about as dillicult as it could well he: yet in a short while the police arrested the righl man. The ahair has been a triumph for science laboriously and skilfully applied to the detection of crime, and will raise the already high reputation of the New Zealand police.