AUSTRALIAN CRIME.

Northern Advocate, 2 August 1924, Page 9 (Supplement)

AUSTRALIAN CRIME.

A SERIES OF STUDIES.

The latest addition to the admirable Series of books which Messrs. Angus and Robertson, Ltd., have been publishing in Sydney comprises a couple of volumes entitled "Studies in Australian Crime." They are the work of Mr. John D. Fitzgerald, a barrister who is a member of the Legislative Council of New South Wales and was at cue time Minister of Justice and Solicitor-General in that State. In his preface he offers a justification of his work by, explaining that his narratives and discussions of notable Australian erimes are based on a belief that there is something not merely interesting but. also instructive to the general reader in.the doings of criminals, while "a study of their motives and surroundings should be useful to the lawyer, the physician, the criininologist, and the statesman." It is the crime rather than the criminal that Mr. Fitzgerald has sought to study in each case, so that his narratives are not mere stories of criminal happenings. He has achieved a good measure of success in his efforts to analyse a number of Australian murders, although he has omitted crimes connected with bushranging, which form the subject of a couple of Platypus volumes by another writer.

In his first volume Mr. Fitzgerald deals ■with seven murders, the first of which is the Bertrand case of the year 1865, while the last two are what are known as the I.W.W. murders of 1916. The second book contains accounts of half a dozen big cases that occurred from twenty to thirty years ago, most of thc-m cases that have been much discussed even in recent years. Mr. Fitzgerald describes the actual trials rather better than he does the events leading up to them, and those who are interested in criminal law from the legal aspect will find that he sets out very clearly various important points that arose at different trials. His facility in this respect is praiseworthy. His books undoubtedly will be read with appreciation by students of criminology as well as by I;hose whose interest is only that of curiosity. As literature Ms "work "will not take very big 1 ! rank, for he is by no means a polislieJ writer. Simplicity, however, is not a bad fault. Mr. Fitzgerald achieves his purpose.