CRIME IN AUSTRALIA.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 118, 4 October 1912, Page 5

CRIME IN AUSTRALIA.

PRACTISED ON AX UNPRECEDENTED SCALE.

By Telegraph—Own Correspondent. Wellington, Last Night. The following interesting letter from Australia appears in the Post this evening:—"There was occasion, 1 a little while ago, to write about a wave of crime which was moving across Australia from east to west. Its progress could be followed by reports' of the most disquieting frequency of crimes of robbery and violence. The eastern portions of Australia now seem to be getting the backwash, }vith another wave following up the first. Matters are worse than before. Burglary, housebreaking, robbery with assault and poeket-picking are being practised on an unprecedented scale. In this State and in Victoria, the snatching of ladies' handbags appears to be an established industry. Even the theft of washing from clothes-lines occurs to an extent not known before, suggesting that big crime leads to imitation in various petty ways. Each Monday morning one looks in the papers for news as to where the week-end safe-breakers have been at work. The chief sensation of the week included an encounter by a Melbourne man with a burglar in a bathroom. The burglar was armed with a razor, which he used viciously in order to secure his release from his would-be eaptor, who was obliged to let go his hold after receiving several ugly gashes. Here, in Sydney, a man with a white mask over his faqe walked into the bar of a hotel and up to the till, and helped himself to a couple of handsful of money. The licensee, a man of 72 years, was at the time reading a newspaper in the bar. For a couple of seconds he sat motionless in amazement. Then he threw himself at the masked robber, a powerful fellow, and held his own in a desper-' ate struggle. The hotelkeeper's wife and daughter came on the scene and rushed to the street calling for help. A son of the licensee, who has a shop alongside the hotel, hurried around to the assistance of his plucky old father. As the sou reached the struggling pair the robber fired a revolver, which the hotel-, keeper had managed to turn aside so that he should not be killed, and the bullet passed under the father's arm and very close to the son. Then a policeman with handcuffs ran in, and the masked and armed robber was made a prisoner. This happened in the middle of the afternoon. It appears to be a general habit to attribute such epidemics of crime to new arrivals from abroad, and the police officials say that the bulk of the misdeeds which are now disturbing the community are undoubtedly the result of a criminal influx which is steadily accompanying the State-aided tide of desirable immigration."