THE MINISTER ON BURGLARS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13747, 12 May 1908, Page 4

THE MINISTER ON BURGLARS.

Tiie secrecy with which the Department of Justice treats, such crimes as burglary, withholding from the public wherever possible all information concerning the commission of these offences.. draws its inspiration from Mr. Me Go wan, who has no sympathy' whatever with English police methods, but determinedly enforces a . system of his own. According to the Minister, the publication of the fact of a'burglary in the daily press enables a burglar' to know that the police are trying to find him. Were it not for this publication; Mr. McGowan evidently thinks that even a horse thief would never know that the animal he stole from a : stable had been" missed, and would therefore ride it innocently into the arms of the police. The strangeness of this official attitude towards crime is made all the more noticeable by its notorious failure. When burglaries commence in a centre, instead of the entire community being on the watch to cooperate with the guardians of the King's peaceas they are in the United Kingdom and in other civilised countries —our New Zealand authorities are compelled to preserve 1 • 1 : i ■■■■■■

an absurd silence, and do what they can with the police force alone. The result we all know. In the United Kingdom, the police Authorities officially inform the press of burglaries, and thus raise a modern hue and cry against the criminals and their plunder. There is no reason whatever why the same method should not be followed in New Zealand, for it must be patent to everybody that criminals are crafty enough to anticipate the discovery of their crime and its report to; the police, and that these criminals are greatly assisted, and not inconvenienced in any way by keeping the public ignorant of what has occurred.