Page 6 Advertisements Column 3

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13325, 3 November 1906, Page 6

An interview with a convicted thief, whose identity is not disclosed, is published in the Melbourne papers. He said: — The police don't count these days. I counted more heads of crooks' in Bourkestreet last Saturday night than I've ever seen there before, and I've been in Melbourne off and on for the last 15 years. All the 'guns' in the country are pouring into Melbourne. There'll be more members of the mob here this Cup time than there has ever been before. What's the reason? 'Why, I told you. The police aren't of any account. That's all. No detective or policeman can arrest you now unless he's got a warrant in his pocket, and he can't have that if you've just come here." This thief is one of the modern school of criminals —shrewd, well educated, well dressed, a teetotaller, and a,close watcher of every move of the police. To him all the loop-holes and deficiencies of the law are well known, and he is prompt to take advantage of them. The position at present is that a recent decision of the Supreme Court took away from the police all that control they formerly exercised, and renders the arrest of suspects without a warrant impossible.