The Daily News. TUESDAY, JUNE 18, 1912. CRIME AND CRIMINALS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 302, 18 June 1912, Page 4

The Daily News. TUESDAY, JUNE 18, 1912. CRIME AND CRIMINALS.

According to the Gilbertian philosophy when the "enterprising burglar's not aburgling," he "'likes to lie a-basldng in | the sun," but if this particular gentleman keeps as busy as he has been doing lately in the colonies he will have very little time for indulging his penchant for the simple life. At the moment he is as übiquitous as the weather. To-day he is cracking safes ii; Sydney, yesterday he was breaking into a railway station at Auckland, to-morrow he will be picking pockets at Fitzroy, and in the meantime a frantic police are searching for him and arriving, like the clown at the circus, who is always ready to fold a carpet that is folded, just too late. But the recent epidemic of crime is growing beyond a joke, and it carries more weight than its surface appearance would suggest. Sydney and Auckland are the two cities that have suffered most, and burglary, with or without violence, is now becoming almost a matter of daily occurrence in these centres. There can be little doubt that an organised gang of thieve# is at work just now in the colonies, for the thefts are so systematic and so persistent as to preclude the possibility of belief that they are merely coincident. Of course, in this connection, the theory of suggestion has to be considered, and there are not wanting people who attribute the present epidemic of crime to the example which was so vividly set by the Parisian anarchists, who reduced robbery by motor-car to a, fine art. There is quite & possibility of there being something in this theory, for everybody knows how the cheap and sensational "Deadwood Dick" literature drives the small boy to picturesque wickedness of a slight and silly order. Possibly the explanation might be accepted were the crimes reported of an isolated character. Unfortunately, they lack all traces of amateurishness, and the conclusion is forced upon the community that a S tln S expert robbers is at work systematically exploiting the colonies. It is significant that two of the principal final ports of call in the colonies—Sydney and Auckland—have been selected as the I scene of operations by the burglars, and this leads to the impression that they aTe men who have "done had 'spericnee" in other climes before attacking this newer and more innocent world of ours. It was suggested that the great increase in crime in America a short while ago was caused by the vigorous campaign against criminals in Great Britain, which I drove a large number of noted English cracksmen across the Atlantic. As a result of this a vigorous attempt was made in America to stamp out this particular class' of crime, and it is now suggested,

with more than a suspicion of likelihood, that the thieves liave turned their attention to Australia, where comparative immunity from crime has made both the police and the public somewhat casual in safeguarding against it. Whatever Uie cause, the unsatisfactory fact remains that we have not for many years, if ever, experienced such a series of deliberate and apparently thoughtfullyorganised burglaries. It is not necessary to suggest that there should be a stricter police supeTveillance in the meantime, for the Department is well aware of the fact that burglary, like the measles, is liable to break out anywhere when once an epidemic starts, and New Plymouth may very easily be selected as the next centre of operations if an organised gang is at work in the country. But the ordinary householder takes these tilings very lightly, and it is just as well, under the circumstances, if business people and the heads of families were, in the meantime, to exercise a little more than the usual caution, in case this gang of depredators should make a descent in our midst. It -is useless to lock the stable door after the steed has been stolen, and a long course of immunity ought not to induce us to neglect the very significant warning provided by the unfortunate experience of our neighbors.