DRUNKENNESS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2346, 12 November 1908, Page 5

DRUNKENNESS.

* NEW EALAND FIGURES

THE POLICE RETURNS

The Rev. Edward Walker lias been looking into the police reports of some years past which are annually laid before Parliament, and bis sent to the “Lyttelton Times” a compilation from the reports. He shows from the figures he gives that the number of persons each year charged with drunkenness has foi* a number of years past been increasing, and tbit more than half of'them in each year have been per,so ns against whom there was known no previous conviction, at 'least as far back as the reports show the number not previously convicted, namely, for the last seven years. The number of those against whom there was.no previous record for these -seven veflfrs amounts to- 35,964, which, MiWalker says, would to himself seem incredible, but there the plain figures stand in the official annual police reports. If the 35,965 persons were all living and in the dominion at the end of last year they would be only a small fraction less than one in twentyseven of last year’s population. Mr Walker says tbit many of them would mot be inebriates who were mere "beginners, and that many escape being charged with drunkenness all their Hes, but he adds, “there are obvious inferences as to the extent to which excessive drinking is taking a/Ot-old of the /country, and the extent to which young men are increasingly becoming its victims, by which the supply of persons charged with drunkenness is kept up and increased.” With the two columns of figures from the police reports he has given the population calculated on the Registrar-Ge-neral’s quarterly returns and the “drink bill,” calculating at per'gallon rates the liquor which passed through the Customs and excise. It is apparent, he says, that the persons charged with drunkenness -have been increasing at a much greater rate than the population, and that the remarkable increase of the drink hill last year was accompanied by a no less remarkable increase in the number both of persons charged with drunkenness and, among them, of persons against whom there was no known record of any‘‘previous conviction.

Separate Not known to Persons have been

Of the 10,203 charged with drunkenness list year, ajl but twentyeight, namely, 10,175, were convicted, 831 being women. Mr Walker adds that another record of public interest in connection with the drink question contained in the police .report for last year is that of the fines” imposed on sly grog-sellers in the eight police districts into which the dominion is divided, namely— Auckland £472, Thames nil, Napier 2s, Wanganui £125, AVellington £39, G'reymout'b nil, Christchurch £420, Dunedin £290 and Invercargill £45. ■While the Christchurch inspector reports that in his district the offence is principally in Ashburton and Oamaru, the Dunedin inspector reports that of thirteen prosecutions in the Dunedin district one only was in the portion of Clutlia included- in that district, and that there is evidence there, of the offence being reduced to a minimum ; and the Invercargill inspector reports: “There have been eleven prosecutions for sly grog-selling, resulting in eight convictions;, at the present time there is no evidence that such sales are being carried on to any appreciable extent in either Invercargill. or Mataura electorate or in Tapanui or Clinton, sub-district. He also reuorts: “The brewery denote at Waikiwi on the border of tlie\ nolicense district have been closed, but are in two instances being replaced by breweries. This is to he regretted, seeing that the latter are under less restrictions as to conduct, being able to sell irrespective of hour. The Pcf.ice Commissioner states m the report: “The direct cost to the dominion in detecting and prosecuting slv-oTOg-sollers during tlie year was £BO9 10s sd, this being £5Bl 11s /<l less than the amount of fines imposed •” “It is evident,” Mr Wa.-ker concludes, “from the foregoing statement of fines imposed in the several police districts that the offence is one not by any means peculiar to nolicense areas.”

Charged with' Previously PopuYea r, , Drunkenness. Convicted . lation. 1895 4,568 — 703,360 1896 4,822 — 757,503 1*597 5,060 ' — 762.079 1898 . 5,458 — 776,288 1S99 6.194 — 790.387 1900 7,252 — 803.333 1901 8,032 4456 822,779 1902 8,244 5202 840,031 1903 8,815 4944 865,560 1904 9,615 5268 889,776 1905 8,707 5141 915,060 1906 9,210 5144 944,490 1907 10,203 5809 967.017 Amount per head of Year, Drink Bill. Population. £ £ s. d. 1895 2,129,119 3 0 5 1896 2,265,900 2 19 8J 1897 2,371,738 3 2 24 1898 2,458,998 3 3 4 1-S99 2,557,968 3 4 9 1900 2,747,170 3 8 44 1901 2,922,982 3 11 04 1902 2,953,298 3 10 32 1903 3,056,590 3 10 74 1904 3,152,849 3 10 10.V 1905 3,120,705 3 8 2:4 1906 3,360,121 3 11 12 1907 3,667,379 O 15 10