People and Their Doings.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20233, 17 February 1934, Page 8

People and Their Doings .

Some of the Temperatures that New Zealanders Experienced in Mesopotamia : Scotland Yard Publishes a Daily Paper : A Papal Legate for Australia.

'J'HE PERSONNEL of Scotland Yard consists of the head of the C.I.D.— an Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police—who has two deputies to assist him, two Chief Constables, and about 1000 detectives who are scattered over the 700 square miles of London streets in 23 squads consisting of anything from 20 to 40 men, each under the command of a divisional detective inspector. Less than 150 men operate directly from the Yard itself, says Mr George Dilnot in his book “ The Real Detective,” just published. In addition, there are four area superintendents —the Big Four of the popular press, who are in daily and constant touch with the divisions. “ The Central Branch of the C.I.D. comes under another superintendent, who has a hundred and fifty picked detectives under his command. “ These five men, with the Chief Constable, constitute that formidable Council of Six which meets together twice a day, or even more often when high problems of crime arise. Between them they can draw on varied personal experiences aggregating more than a hundred and eighty years. Murderers, burglars, pickpockets, forgers—artists in crime, and petty thieves —they know them and their ways as a hunter knows the habits of the beasts of the jungle.” \EAR the C.I.D. has to deal with more than 80,000 indictable offences. Many of these are fairly trivial, petty theft and other minor misdemeanours, but the handling of even the smallest takes up time, so that the C.I.D. is kept fully occupied. And behind this field force there are other groups whose work is cquallv important. One branch has control of the Crime Index, a card cabinet system containing well over 20,000 references. “ A good index,” once wrote a famous lawyer, “ cannot be too prolix.” Prolixity is the keynote of the Crime Index. In the Finger Print Bureau there are more than half-a-million finger prints. Thanks to a special formula devised by the late Sir Edward Henry, any one of these prints can be traced in less than five minutes. There is also that little-known paper. The Police Gazette. “ It is printed daily at Scotland Yard,

where, incidentally, there is a well-equipped printing office with a staff of 50 men. The Police Gazette is as indifferent to net sales certificates as it is to advertisement revenue, for it has neither. You couldn’t buy a copy. Every day it sends out some seven thousand copies all over the country, and its readers never miss a line. A normal issue will contain sixteen pages, with a slip page for late news, and each with, perhaps, a hundred and twenty cases of persons sought and crimes committed. A CERTAIN New Zealander was on active service with the Anzac Mounted in Mesopotamia he became the owner of a book of statistics of the country. In the last few days he has glanced over its weather figures, in order to convince himself that he once knew what heat was. In summer, unless a man happened to be submerged in the Tigris or Euphrates, he was never likely to forget"' the sun. No such luxury as butter for the troops then, and as the July temperature always rose to 178 degrees in the sun, they kindly requested the dear ones at home not to pack cakes of chocolate in the parcels of comforts which were so acceptable on service. In 27 years the highest shade temperature at Bagdad had been 121, in August, and the lowest 79.9, in January. There is so little moisture in that country that for statistical purposes a rainy day means any 24 hours from 8 a.m. to 8 a.m. during which .01 inch or more is registered. sg? SEMI TABILAI, who has been employed for the past 27 vears as messenger at the Bank of New Zealand, at Suva, has achieved the dignity of a portrait and a tabloid biography in the “ New Zealand Banker.” He was a footballer of great prowess in native Fiji Rugby, and is a sergeant in the Native Defence Force, and he serves as lay reader and treasurer in the Jubilee Methodist Church at Suva. Kinsmen—who are not held lightlv in Fiji —always refer to Rupeni as “ the man who owns the bank,” and other natives are accordingly much impressed by this distinction.

Xj'ROM the steamer Mariposa conveying him to New* Zealand, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne, Dr Mannix, announced by a wireless message that the Pope had decided to send the Primate of Ireland, Cardinald Macrory, Archbishop of Armagh, to Australia as a special Papal Legate to the Eucharistic Congress in December and to the Victorian Centenary celebrations. Cardinal Macrory is regarded as the most conspicuous personage in the Roman Catholic Church in the Englishspeaking world. His Eminence was born in 1861 at County Tyrone, Ireland. He was educated at Armagh and at Maynooth College, Dublin, where he was ordained as a priest in 1885. In 1889, he was appointed Professor of Sacred Scriptures and Oriental Languages at Maynooth. From 1912 to 1915, he was vice-president of Maynooth, and in the last-mentioned year was consecrated Bishop of Down and Connor. lie was a member of the Irish Convention in 1917 and was translated as Bishop of Armagh in 1925. A year later, he was created Cardinal. Ilis Eminence is the author of a number of ecclesiastical works. sg? sg: CIXTY YEARS AGO. (From the “Star” of February 17, 1874) : Auckland, February 17.—Men have been advertised for without success to work on the Waikato railw’ay. Dunedin.—According to papers by the Mongol, great activity prevails in the German arsenals. The guards are being rapidly supplied with the new Manson arm. New field pieces are also being turned out. Immigration.—Mr Hollowa\* who comes in charge of the immigrants by the Mongol, proposes to remain some time in New Zealand, and make himself practically acquainted with the wants of the country. Wellington, February 16.—The Luna left on Saturday night for a trip round the islands, to discover eligible sites for the proposed new lighthouses. She proceeds first to Cape Campbell, then to Godley Heads, Timaru, Otago Heads and Stewart’s Island. In going up the West Coast, she will touch at the South-west Cape, where it is proposed to erect a lighthouse, and then proceed to Greymouth to coal. She visits Westport after that, where she will be detained while the party visit Cape Foulwind, where a lighthouse site is nowbeing cleared. The vessel then returns to .Wellington.