Following swiftly on the tracks of several crimes of violence comes the murder of " bank clerk in Iway compartment during 9 train Journey from Maylands to Perth. Two bank clerks were conveying some money from the May-Lauds branch of their bank to the central office in Perth. A. stranger in the carriage slightly known to both men suddenly pulled out a gun, after the train had passed [ast Perth, and demanded the money [be handed' over. The Inds refused with the result' that the stranger shot one dead, and hitting the other over the head with the butt of his revolver ixtunned him, and decamped with the money. The murderer did not get away very far, for the Western Australian police quickly picked up his tracks and made a sensational arrest upon the—transcontinental railway when the criminal, the next day, tried to get through to South Australia and the more thickly poulated areas of the eastern coast, to go into hiding. 'The man Bert Woods, arrested for the murder of Lim Kwong, the Chinese market gardener at' Mansfield will stand his trial for this brutal crime on July 7. The police are diligently, searching for the murder of Colonel Tulloch but so far with no result, though a reward of £500 has been offered for information leading to arrest. So frequent are becoming crimes of violence that Mr, Gullett the member for Henry in the Federal Parliament attempted to influence the Minister for Trade and Customs, Mr. Pratten, to introduce a restrict-fon upon all revolvers coming into the Commonwealth. The Minister said it was purely a matter for the States and there the question dropped so far as the Federal government was concerned. But Mr. Gul-lett has done some good, and action has been taken by Victoria and last week Sir Alexander Peacock went over to Sydney to confer with the Labour minister in that State as to the best means to combat the rising evil.
Much of the blame ihas been placed upon the shoulders of the moving picture industry inasmuch as the h brand of film which shows the hero flourishing revolvers and blowing holes through villains who annoy. him, or worse still makes a e: iminal reform and marry the heroine, to live happily ever afterwards as a member of the police force in a small flat with a small child in a basket, has so _penetrated the heads of our young gen-_ eration that many wish to emulate their heroes of the screen. That not only the screen but the novel from which the picture is often taken, and which in its-forcible language stirs the blood for a longer period is to blame there is little doubt. The ago may be an exciting one and we may not have settled down as quietly after the great war as the govern" ment thought we would; but at
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.