WAVE OF CRIME.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 170, 20 July 1936, Page 5

WAVE OF CRIME.

I ' . « ' 'AUSTRALIAN MENACE.j i ■ MURDERS AND ROBBERIES. ' WHAT IS THE REASON ? ! ; ! (From Our Own Correspondent.) [ j SYDNEY, July 15. | I At the Quarter Sessions last week j Judge Curlewis passed heavy sentences ' ] on two young men found guilty of armed assault and robbery, and extortion of money by threats on four or five separate cases. • The two accused, j i Knight (20) and Brignull (20), appar-I entlv made a regular round of spolia- | tion among small shopkeepers and taxi | drivers in various suburbs, and his | Honor told Knight that he was liable to j 03 years' imprisonment on his five I charges, and Brignull that he was liable I to 50 years if the sentences had been i made cumulative. The accused pleaded guilty—the cases made out against them by the police were quite complete—and Judge Curlewis announced that he intended to treat all such cases with drastic severity. "I mean to show armed robbers like you that to carry a gun is the worst thing that you ever did in your lives," he told the prisoners. Describing ! Knight as "one of that large class of I criminals who should never be out of gaol." he sentenced liim to ten years' I imprisonment on each of the charges. and he gave Brignull. as the younger | offender, seven years on each charge, the sentences to run concurrently. ! Increase in Murders. It is impossible to deny that Australia in general, and New South Wales in particular, seem to be passing through a phase of development in which crime plays an inordinately conspicuous part. I have had occasion in recent months to comment at length on the large number of violent crimes committed of late in New South Wales, and it is not forgotten that a few weeks ago there were 13 men and boys in gaol here together under sentence of death. In the light of statistics, the rapid increase in the

number of Violent crimes here is simply phenomenal. In two successive years (1934-5) the number of murders in this State increased from 18 to 31, attempted murders from 14 to 43, and manslaughter cases , from 34 to 49 —an increase of 57 cases in one year in these violent crimes, alone. It is an appalling fact that j last year, out of a population of | 2,057,000, no less than 134.900 were brought before the Courts charged with , various offences. . . ■ I The facts are deplorable enough and almost equally depressing is the difli- , culty of accounting for tliem. "Truth" suggests, with strict impartiality, that this wave of crime which seems to have . overwhelmed Australia of late may be , due in various degrees to the decay of , home life, the decline of church influence, | modern disrespect for law and resent- . ment of control, a growth of the "killer" instinct, and the failure of the police to discharge their responsibilities efficient'y. By the way, "Truth" offers an argument which seems to dispose effectively of the contention that the growth of crime is due chiefly to depressed. social and economic • conditions —in short, to poverty. An examination of the worst types of crimes and an examination ot tliose brought before the Courts for minor offences show that it is not the children of the unemployed that are getting into trouble," the paper states. And "Truth" adds this interesting comment: "In recent months a rapid series of terrible crimes has shocked the community and in only one instance was the murderous culprit a penniless waif, the product of a despairing impoverished home." With these facts to face, those whose duty it is to administer the law have been gravely exercised in mind as to the penalties that can be most effectively enforced against wrongdoers, j The natural outcome of their reflections j has been an increase in the severity of | the sentences imposed upon the guilty, I have already commented upon tin heavy sentences passed by Judge Curlewis this week on two young men guilty of armed assault and robbery. In Brisbane on the same day Richaril Hollowav (23) received a sentence oi 15 ' years' imprisonment for assaultina and robbing an old woman in a railway train, and the presiding judge expressed i the view that "aggravated violence | should be visited by periodical floggings 1 even in a case of wilful murder."

Flogging and Dignity. This question of flogging constantly arises when paculiarly brutal or atrocious crimes are under discussion, I and the proposal is generally shelved after eloquent protests from those who believe that the dignity of human nature would be outraged by such a | punishment. < j In even more extreme cases the demand for the infliction of the death sentence is often successfully met by j equally sentimental appeals for the sanc- ' titv of human life. The latest instance of this refusal to exact the capital. ' penalty comes also from Brisbane., where Kopet, "uncontrollable child, reforma- . Tory graduate, torturer of animals, thief, ' social wastrel, brutal and unprovoked ! murderer of two good citizens, savage 1 assailant of a third," has escaped the I gallows and is to be maintained in comfort in gaol at the public expense for the rest of his life, for "they do not hang jin Queensland." On such cases the ! "Bulletin" last week offered the follow | ing suggestive comments: "Such wile I beasts must not be permitted to prey I upon a civilised community. The citi ■ | zens from whom they select their vie ' j tinis are forbidden to carry arms foi • i protection of person or property. Th< ! reward of obedience to the law slioulc "i be effective protection. The only realb - j effective protection is that which en • j sures that the proven bloodthirst; 1 : beast shall be deprived of the life o : which he has callously robbed his vie - | tims. The only safe man-killer is ' j dead one." To those who are not moved by thi 3 J appeal the "Bulletin" suggests that b :1! declining to carry the law to its flnj j extreme against dangerous criminal ! they are preparing the way for the reia Rj of personal vengeance which, as tli 0 ! history of lynchinc in America hf j shown, is always likely to supervene i j a period of moral cowardice and judici; s i inertia. Tt may seem a far cry r fro f! the orderly and peaceful life of r. I British Dominion to the blood-stainc j I chaos of flie W : M Wrst and the howliij •- I do7S of Wild Bill Hiskock and Buffai ii | Bill. The prospect of lynching in Atif n ! tralia, however, is no more fantasti d ! to-dav than a prediction of the presen if | "wave of crime" would have seeme< <r j twenty years aero to peaceful An y before gangster methods 3fel(l from America, and S™"®- r para llel the el bourne learned to =. worst horrors °f Cl,jca °