CLEARINS THE CITY.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1686, 22 June 1904, Page 57

CLEARINS THE CITY.

Thieves and various others of th© vagabond family are not nearly so numerous in Wellington just noiv as they; have been for some time. During th© past month the detectives have been busy making arrangements for lessening the danger to citizens and their prcri perty during the Avinter —the season of the year Avhen Bikes and his kith gather in the toAvn. During the summer months the thief lives to a great extent in the country, moving from small toAvn to small town, and from race meeting to race meeting, Irving on Avhat wits'he possesses or Avhat wits others lack. The Avinter brings him back to the city. The© the detectives Avork overtime.

The policy of the Wellington force is prevention, and so the Vagrancy Act is applied. Within the past month about a dozen well-known vagabonds have been sent to prison to dream about the things they might have done, and about a dozen others have packed up the jemmy and the skeleton key and trek-i ked. So far this year the city has been singularly free from serious crime, and this, according to the authorities, is undoubtedly due bo the prosecutions under the Vagrancy Act. there is no doubt, however, that crime is increasing with the growth of the city. The recently-added section to the Vagrancy Act, making it a penal offence to consort with bad characters, has been oi great service to the police, and at the present time two of the most notorious house-breakers that have yet been in the colony are snug in prison by* reason of it, whereas without it they would have probably still been at large. One class of criminal hard to reach is that which follows the drunken man and robs him. There is very little heard of those crimes; in most cases the robbed man is glad to say nothing about the matter. Respectable country men, too, are prey for the same class of criminal. Decoded into houses —generally by the aid of women—they are robbed of all they have with them, jyid dread of publicity keeps the victim silent. . , ■ More prosecutions under the convenient Vagrancy Act are expected shortly.