INCENDIARY FIRES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20787, 5 August 1929, Page 8

INCENDIARY FIRES.

New Zealand is a law-abiding com-munity,-and the outbreak of incendiarism .at Christchurch, is an experience scarcely less novel than it is disturbing. That every effort should be made to stamp out the menace thus presented’ is of course urgently necessary. The manner in which the police have been so far baffled in their endeavour to detect the perpetrator or perpetrators of these outrages has certainly been calculated to create a feeling of public uneasiness, and it is to be hoped that the visit of the Commissioner of Police to Christchurch and the arrangements that are proposed for strengthening the force in that city will’ he productive of reassuring results. ■ A list published by a contemporary of fires attended with suspicious circumstances that have taken place within the last three weeks in Christchurch; is very formidable, and the resulting damage has been estimated at upwards of £.50,000. The loss caused by fire is an absolute* loss: the value of the property _aud goods destroyed is permanently withdrawn from the community. Insurance there may be, hut the community pays all the same. It seems to be fairly evident that those fires in Christchurch that arc causing so much . concern arc the work of some person or persons whose operations are being conducted with a good deal of cunning. That the individual who develops a propensity for crime of this kind is of more or less unbalanced mind may be taken for granted. Incendiarism is sometimes inspired by motives of revenge. But revenge could not be the actuating influence in the case of: so many attempts at the destruction of the property of different owners, unless indeed such depredations should mark the activities of a fanatic moved by a desire to be revenged on society in general. The public is entitled to. look to the police for protection, and the police force has the confidence of

■the community in the discharge of its responsibilities. But a duty rests upon the public also to aid in its own protection and to assist the police so lav "as may be possible. It is very rarely in a British community that the organisation of support for the 'police is necessary, but the circumstances presented by the epidemic of fires in Christchurch—circumstances that are fraught with danger and severe loss to the public—arc .so excep tioha I as to render the formation of vigilance committees of citizens a very sensible step.