CRIME IN NEW ZEALAND.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCIX, Issue 11593, 31 May 1898, Page 4

CRIME IN NEW ZEALAND.

-The Judges of the Snpreme Court who yesterday opened the criminal sessions at various centres in this country had generally a pleasant task to perform in commenting upon the. absence of serious charges from the 1 calendar. At Auckland and Christ-' church, however, the lists of cases set down for trial are unusually long,' and naturally the presiding Judges had some comment to offer on the fact. In the case of Christchurch, Me Justice Denniston remarked upon the increase in crimes of violence as compared with the number of such offences; during recent years. His Honor hadi no suggestion to offer as to the probable cause of the increase. In the opinion of many people the undesirable development is due to the disorganisation that has lately prevailed in the police force. The predatory and the violent classes in the community are always ready to take advantage of any relaxation of police vigilance, and it can hardly be doubted that this has something to do with the slight increase of offences against the person noted by Mr Justice Denniston. At Auckland, the criminal calendar is exceptionally heavy, and Mr Justice Oonolly has declared that “ there is a great deal more criminal business in Auckland than anywhere else in the colony.” We are not aware that the Judge’s generalisation is justified by the facts. One heavy calendar does not make a bad criminal reputation ; and though the list of thirty odd eases now set down for trial at Auckland may look formidable,-it is not really so. If the sixteen Maoris charged in connection with the Eawene disturbance wore excluded, and also the three cases of attempted suicide—the latter belonging to a class of offence which Mu Justice Conolly has frequently declared ought not to be sent to the Supreme Court—the calendar would be largely reduced. The Auckland people are not less lawabiding than those in other parts of the country; but the Auckland circuit of the Supreme Court includes a wider area of country and a larger population than any of the other circuits, and it is to he expected that it should show a proportionate number of serious offences.. Another fact that tends to swell the northern calendar is ’the large Maori population included in the jurisdiction of the Court. It has been invariably noted, where a large semi-civilised population is in process of being brought under-civilised law, that the half-cultured section of the people contribute far more than their due share to the roll of offences. Mr Justice Conolly, we observe, has commended the Government for the prompt measures it took to prevent bloodshed in connection with the Native trouble at Ekwene. Such comment. is all very good, after the, fortunate issue of theiexpedition; but it still seems to us, as we remarked at the time, that the measures adopted were over-elaborate, too abrupt andcalculated to provoke , a serious outbreak. As the event showed, it was only by a hair’s-breadth that the Maoris were prevented from firing upon the Government force as it advanced through the bush towards the position held by the Natives. The Judge’s eulogy of the Government comes, however, in very good part from a gentleman who was- formerly a member of a Conservative Cabinet. The country is, on the whole, to be congratulated upon comparative immunity from serious crimes ; and a. perusal of the various lists of offences suggests that there are still a great many cases sent to the Supreme Court that might very well be dealt with by the Stipendiary Magistrates.