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Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XLVII, Issue 12273, 6 September 1904, Page 7

The system of criminal detection by means of registered finger-prints ■ was brought into prominence for the first time in Napier on Thursday. A Maori was charged' at the Supreme Court with, thefti from a dwelling at Napier, and as it was understood that he would possibly deny that 'he was the same individual who had beeii convicted on seven charges of theft at Wang.an.ui in 1903, the police were .prepared with proofs* of identity. Mr W. Dinnie, son of Polios Commiss:oner Dinnie, and the officer in charge of the finger-print register in the Police Department, produced records of the prints taken at Wanganui and Napier, and said there was not "a shadow of doubt that they were those of the same individual. The Crown Prosecutor (Ma* Cornford) said the system was now belived to be infallible by scientific people, and added that it ought to be known that so accurate a, criminal register was now being kept in New Zealand.