The murder of Horatio Heywood Fechervill Ramsden on Mt. Eden, Auckland, on 22 January 1916 was committed within the hearing of residents of Hillside Crescent, one of the less-populated streets of the suburb. Screams and cries for help were heard and there was a following commotion in bushes lining the crescent. Death was by stabbing, and although a man was seen hurrying away from the locality of the crime within a few minutes of the cries for help, the police were unable to locate him even for questioning. There was evidence of a woman in the case who was alleged to have been in the vicinity, but after interviewing a large number of people and exhausting every possibility, the police were compelled to admit defeat.

The police were never able to solve the mystery of the throttling in a cloakroom at His Majesty's Theatre in Courtenay Place, Wellington, in December 1908, of John H. McCormack, a Liverpool seaman. The body was discovered soon after the murder, but although several unsavoury characters known to have been in the company of the dead man that evening were carefully questioned, the police were unable to find evidence warranting an arrest. Similarly, when in September 1914 a Mrs Frances Marshall was found in a factory alley in Upper Nelson Street with about 30 stab wounds in all parts of the body, there was a clear history of doubtful associates, many of them with criminal records, but no case could be made out against any individual.

In 1889 the sudden death of a wealthy South Canterbury station owner in suspicious circumstances that suggested arsenical poisoning started a thoroughgoing inquiry in the Temuka South district which finally ended without the cause of death being determined to everyone's satisfaction. The deceased was John Hayhurst, aged 62, the owner of two rich estates. He died suddenly on the eve of his departure on a trip to England. As Hayhurst had taken a prominent part in local affairs and in the development of the district, his inexplicable death created wide-spread public interest. A coroner's jury had returned a verdict of death from natural causes in accordance with medical testimony, but the police were not satisfied and the body was exhumed. There was evidence that members of the family had considered Hayhurst's life to be in danger and had urged him to slip away to England quietly without letting anyone know. Before he could do so he died. Conflicting medical testimony with regard to the presence of arsenic in the body complicated the position, and no firm conclusion was ever reached. The cause of death is still officially unknown as far as the police are concerned.

The story of Yorky, a sort of semi-anonymous miner-packer, known to everyone throughout the Roxburgh diggings in Central Otago in 1863, provides one of the earliest recorded unsolved crimes in New Zealand. Yorky, an inoffensive 50-year-old, with a liking for strong liquor but no enemies, was found one day in March brutally battered to death in a lonely gully. His horses and a stranger he had befriended had disappeared, and the hunt was quickly up. The search ranged far and wide around the goldfields, and eventually detectives meeting the Dunstan coach at Dunedin arrested a miner, Johnson, on his way back to Victoria, on the grounds that he seemed to answer the circulated description of the man wanted for the murder of Yorky. The pity of it was that with the arrest of Johnson the search was called off, even though none of the identifying witnesses was prepared to swear that the police had the right man. Strong defence evidence was ignored by the committing Magistrate and Johnson faced his trial. But the jury, without leaving the jury box, brought in an acquittal. By this time the trail of the mysterious stranger was cold. The Otago Provincial Council was so convinced that Johnson had been the victim of a grave error that it gave him an ex gratia grant of £500, and public subscription found another £300 to defray the costs of his trial and enable him to continue his journey to Melbourne. The killer was never brought to justice in spite of a feverishly renewed search after Johnson's acquittal.

In recent years police methods of investigation have undergone great changes to meet the needs of the modern world. With the expansion of scientific detection, tremendous advances have been made in every department of law enforcement, with a corresponding emphasis on police recruitment, training, and experience. But like every other country in the world, and despite the high standards of efficiency set by its Police Force, New Zealand has its list of crimes which have defied every effort to solve them. In their day these cases aroused great interest, in large measure because the mysteries were never unravelled to the full satisfaction of the law. Many are still referred to from time to time – a few of the more notable unsolved crimes are dealt with here.

Although financial considerations rather than any dearth of players have tended to curtail New Zealand's activities in international play, several overseas tours, and tours by overseas teams, have been arranged. English teams have visited New Zealand on three occasions: in 1935 (B. Archdale, captain); in 1949 (M. Hide, captain); and in 1957–58 (M. Duggan, captain); while a New Zealand team visited England in 1954 (R. McKenzie, captain). On three occasions New Zealand teams have toured Australia, the first being in 1938 when a New Zealand team, under I. Lamason, played in Sydney during the 150th Anniversary celebrations. Since then New Zealand teams have toured Australia in 1956–57 (R. McKenzie, captain), and Australian teams have toured New Zealand in 1948 (M. Dive, captain) and 1961 (M. Picton, captain).

by Jean Melva Stonell, Secretary, New Zealand Women's Cricket Association, Wellington.

Although nearly 1,000 New Zealand women play cricket, two-thirds of these are schoolgirls and most competitions have necessarily to be arranged to suit their needs. Each year, during the summer holiday period, tournaments are held for the first and second XIs of all associations. Provincial teams from Auckland, Wellington, Canterbury, and Otago compete for the Hallyburton Johnstone Shield in a series of two-day matches. At the same time the second XIs from the four main centres and the first XIs of their affiliated associations compete, in a series of one-day matches, for the premier trophies of each island. These are the Amalgamated Theatres Shield, for North Island teams; and the Mary Machin Shield, for South Island teams. In addition to these annual fixtures, representative matches are arranged from time to time between teams in lower grades.

In 1934, when it was learned that an English team would visit Australia and New Zealand in the following year, the New Zealand Women's Cricket Council was inaugurated in Christchurch. At first the council was centred in Christchurch and consisted of local members who also represented the affiliated associations in other centres. The Council remained at Christchurch until about 1948, when it was decided that the associations in the four main centres should each hold office for two years in rotation. This arrangement ended in 1953 when the council became permanently established in Wellington.