A BANEFUL INFLUX.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20740, 6 December 1930, Page 12

A BANEFUL INFLUX.

In the recent frequency of violent robbery and kindred crimes in the Dominion there is reason to suspect an inllux of Australians of tho criminal class. Of course, Australia has no unique notoriety in the prevalence of disorder of this sort. What happens thus in some of its cities is matched in kind and outmatched in extent in certain other countries. But the nearness of Australia to this Dominion, coupled with tho case of communication, makes the amount of disorder there a matter of special concern here; and the comments of police, bar and bench indicate that any wave of crime in the Commonwealth is bound to send a baneful influence across the Tasman, to be seen in such crimes as robbery with violence committed by men hailing from there. The facts arc sufficiently impressive to justify the taking of precautions against the entry of those known unfavourably to the police. It-should bo possible to devise means for the strict examination of incoming boats with a view to checking the inflow of these undesirables. Some time ago there was a proposal for the interchange of a number of detectives between Australia and New Zealand, so that advantage would accrue to both countries. That proposal was not entertained by the police authorities here, but it ought to be revived. It need not entail a long stay in either country by any detective on temporary transfer from the other. That would defeat the purpose of the precaution. The period should not be so long as to entail any detective's being so long away from his own force as to lose touch with its work. What is required is a sequence of interchanges that would make »it possible for every incoming boat, at the main ports of Australia and New Zealand, to be met by a detective able to recognise members of the criminal class arriving from the other side. Without this arrangement, the police force is at a disadvantage in combating crime, and the community lacks the maximum of protection to which it is entitled. Those in authority in the Dominion should give second thoughts to the rejected proposal.