THE Hauraki Plains Gazette With which is Incorporated THE OHINEMUKI GAZETTE MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, FRIDAY "Public Service" MONDAY, MARCH 13, 1950 SERIOUS CRIME

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 59, Issue 4254, 13 March 1950, Page 4

THE Hauraki Plains Gazette With which is Incorporated THE OHINEMUKI GAZETTE MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, FRIDAY "Public Service" MONDAY, MARCH 13, 1950 SERIOUS CRIME

A free vote in Parliament on the restoration of capital punish-* ment is part of the present Government’s programme. Members whose minds were not pade up on the issue may have been assisted to a decision by the sequence of crimes of violence reported in the few short weeks of this year. A woman was shot dead at Pokaka on January 24, and the murderer received a life sentence. A middle-agedl bacteriologist was found dead of a shotgun wound in the chest near Whakatane on February 14. There was also the case a few days ago of a farmer near Otorohanga who was found drowned, whose son was shot dead, and whose wife was wounded.

Current with these repegts of recent crimes was theaCßtehcing of life imprisonment of h man on February 10 for the murder of an elderly woman at Foxton. A similar sentence was passed on an accused on February 16 for'a double murder at Taumarunui. The following day an offender received 12 months* hard labour for discharging a firearm in . Christchurch with intent to maim. But for two courageous police officers, deaths might have occurred. '

These instances alone speak of ah upsurge in crime which cannot be overlooked. The position has arisen in which a crime that a few years ago would have shocked the entire community for weeks is rapidly lost to memory in a crowded sequence of similar > events. The minds of those in isolated prices, especially women whose husbands may be away from home for long periods during the day, are submitted to anxiety, if only because the prevalence of such serious crime presumes in their minds a general weakening in the authority if not the application of the law generally.

The official attitude on the matter was reiterated at New Plymouth recently by the Attor-ney-General, Mr. Webb, when he said that the Government was prepared to enforce capital punishment in certain classes of serious cases, and added: “I am myself satisfied that the restoration of capital punishment will be a step in right direction, feeling that nothing but the fear of the gallows will deter some men from taking life.”