SHIFTING SCENERY

NZ Truth, 15 March 1924, Page 6

SHIFTING SCENERY

— ♦ Aramoho's Assassin Magnet of Memory m Murder. (By "Truth's" Travelling Correspondent.) Patience is a precept persistently practised by the police, and it is being pursued m connection with the Aramoho atrocity. It is not well for the public memory to forget tho doing to death of Mrs. Oates, and the pursuit of clues has not been relaxed by our C.I.D. Sometimes "Truth" wonders whether Commissioner Wright is wise m keeping everything to himself. Of course, that policy is ingrained m him; as it is m most of the force, from the sergeants upwards. Even the rank and file are afraid to breathe at times that they "have a good thing on." There have been further conferences m camera by the experts of the department with regai-d to the Aranrbho murder, and pursuit of possibilities is carried on. There have been df. versions on account of intervening sensations, but the sleuths are vigilant. It cannot be truly said just now that the concentration* on the southern West Coast recently was resultless. But the meshes m the far-flung net were wide enough for the big fish tc escape. Now the suspicion is that the , lure of the scene of the crime has attracted the guilty one, and he has doubled back to Wanganui. If so, he has run the full length of his tether, and. the sequel, as it will be recorded m print, will be a great testimony to the patience, energy and persistency of the detective force. There has been much public and private criticism regarding the failure of the police to bring the Aramoho murderer to justice, and the Commissioner has had to bear with a good deal. If he maintains a policy of silence, he certainly has to suffer the slings and arrows of criticism m silence.

There is something to be said for the English and American system of immediately publishing m the newspapers pictures of men who are wanted for major and minor crimes — especially capital crimes. Even Scotland Yard m these latter days favors that system, supplying photos and descriptions and news to the papers. Probably that is why, as Sir Basil Thomson, the famous exchief of Scotland Yard, has just recorded, m England the number of murders works out at one person out of every 635,000 of the population, and that no less than 94 per cent, of Britain's murders are solved. That is a wonderful record. Compare it with the record of the United States of America, where one out of every 12,000 of the population is born to be murdered — and less than 2 per cent, of the murderers are brought to justice. New Zealand's C.I.D. is striving hard to live up to Scotland Yard's reputation and achievement, and therefore persists m Its pursuit of any and every clue referring to the Aramoho atrocity.