The Wanganui Herald. [PUBLISHED DAILY.] FRIDAY, JANUARY 13, 1899. THE CRIME WAVE.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 9641, 13 January 1899, Page 2

The Wanganui Herald. [PUBLISHED DAILY.] FRIDAY, JANUARY 13, 1899. THE CRIME WAVE.

Every now and again the world is horrified by the discovery of hideous crimes in different and often widelyseparated countries. Those committed in the heart of London some years ago by the mysterious " Jack the Ripper " are still unavenged. It is said the perpetrator was, as suspected at the time, an insane medical student, and that he iB now the inmate of a lunatic asylum in England. Whether this latter Is true or not we cannot say, but tho probabilities are that if he is, there is no proof of his having committed the numerous atrocities whicli so frequently horrified people in London at their perpetration. If there were, he would doubtless have been arraigned on the charge of murder, and tho evidence In support thereof made public, even if the jury had to return a verdict declaring the prisoner insane, and, therefore, a fit subject for restraint, during Her Majesty's pleasure, in . a lunatic asylum for Criminals. The Deeming and Butler atrocities were fortunately sheeted home to their perpetrators, who paid the penalty of their crimes on the gallows. After a lull in the waves of crime, the world has again been shooked by tho commission of a dreadful triple murder at Gatton, in Queensland.where outrage was added to the slaying of two of tho victims of some human fiend or fiends. It is hardly possible that one person could take possession of a trap with three occupants, all of whom were young and strong, drive it off the rond some distance into the scrub, and there slay an able-bodied young lnan and his two grown-up sisters single handed. The police do not seem, so far, to have been able to discovor the perpetrator or perpetrators of this atrocious crime, which for utter brutality is one of the worst that has been com mitted in Australia, although it is pressed hard by the murder and worse of the young lad Hill, whose slaying was evidently intended to cover an even more hideous crime, In this latter case an arrest has been made, and the police aro confident they have the right man. Whether thoy will be able to produce sufficient evidence to secure a conviction remains to be seen. The crime wave has even spread to this colony, where a young girl was criminally assaulted and seriously injured near Opaki by a man who accosted her as she was riding along a lonely road, and who, she asseris, dragged her off her horse by the hair of her head, and effected his vile purpose after a violent resistence on her part, of which there is said to be ample medical evidence forthcoming. The man she accuses of the outrage is in custody, and if convicted will, no doubt, receive a severe sentence. Had the crime been perpetrated in some of the Australian colonies the punishment would bo death, as such crimes are classed as capital offences in New South Wales and other Australian provinces. Considering the fact that women in the country districts of Now Zealand have to ride alone along lonely-roads both by day and night, and that growing girls have to go to schoolin the newly-settled parts of tho country, where houses aro few and far between, the wonder is that criminal offences of the Opaki typo are not of more frequent occurrence, as there are always bad characters wandering about tho country, whose presence is a menaco to the safety of life and property. It says much for the efficiency of the much-abused New Zealand police forco that serious crime in the colony is so infrequent, and that where it is committed the culprit "is speedily arrested, and made to suffer for his misdeeds. It is impossible to stamp out crime, as some people seem unable at times to resist their criminal instincts, and act like insane malefactors without a moment's warning. This is frequently the outcome of vicious living and an hereditary criminal taint and impossible to be entirely repressed. All that can be dono in such cases is to discover the culprits, and Isheet the crime home to them, and keep them in prison for the rest of thoir days, so that thoy cannot again cooinjit such serious outrages as those under notice. Fortunately this part of the colony has always been _ singularly free from this class of crime, which says much for the police protection afforded .the residents and not a little for the morality of tho latter.