MURDERERS AT LARGE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2182, 31 March 1891, Page 4

MURDERERS AT LARGE.

During the last few weeks, says the. Melbourne. Age, the Chief Clerk of the Police Department has turned up the records of murders committed in this colony for the purpose of ascertaining the number of such crimes in which the murderers are still at large. Dating from the first Gazette obtainable, in February, 1853, it appears that there are approximately ninety-four murders, extending over thirty-seven years, for which the criminals have not been brought to justice. • 'J he figures do not include; infanticides nor aboriginal murders: -The history of thes&'cases Bhowß signi-! ficantly the ;effects of settlement in; restraining or detecting crime, and. may also be of interest in connection 1 with the value,of the police organisation. In the first five years of the period, when the colony was in ani unsettled state, no less than thirtyseven murders were unpunished,; During the next five years the; unpunished crimes fell to seveeteen ;. in the next five years to seven. Then j they rose slightly to nine in the; five years ending 1873, but thei downward tendency returned . rvndlhei records for the next ten years were; eight and five for each half decade.; Between 1883 and 1888 there were 7i jjurderers who escaped. Properly; speaking, only two escaped, as one waß; the murderer of the fisherman Donald McDonald, on the bank of the Murray, and the other was the murderer of Mr and Mrs Davis at Narbethong, the latter murders being presumably the work of one hand. If it be considered that in some of the murders recorded there were, several victims who were doubtless killed by the same person on the same occasion, the actual humber of murders undetected will be somewhat reduced.