CRIME IN DOMINION

Greymouth Evening Star, 6 August 1946, Page 3

CRIME IN DOMINION

NO PERCEPTIBLE INCREASE

RECORDED

’ REVIEW BY COURT JUDGE (P.A.) NAPIER, Aug. 5. “According to newspaper reports from other countries, there has been an increase in crimes of violence attributable to the unsettling effects of the war and war conditions. _ In New Zealand a survey of our crime shows that there has been really no perceptible increase at all m the number of crimes committed, said Mr. Justice Fair, addressing the grand jury at the opening of the Supreme Court at Napier to-day. “The only crimes that show the effect of war,” continued. His Honor, “are those committed by men who have come back suffering from war strain and who have committed crimes of impulse. There has been no evidence of any kind of lack cn self-respect oy a lessening respect for the law as the result of war service. “It is only fair to the men who served overseas to say this,” added His Honor. “I must pay a tribute to their steady good behaviour and their reputation since they returned, which compares with their reputation overseas.” His Honor referred to another section of the community, which appeared to be drawn from all classes and which had adopted the crime of breaking, entering, and the blowing of safes as a profession. It was not a large section, but unquestionably a disreputable one.