THE JULY DRINK RECORD.

Evening Star, Issue 12881, 2 August 1906, Page 8

THE JULY DRINK RECORD.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—During the . month of July there have been chronicled in the columns of the Dunedin papers the following crimes, accidents, and offences, due to drink-Drunk-enness, 68 (ten of which were women); obscene, indecent, and disorderly conduct-, 11; lunacy,!; prohibition orders, 6; deaths through drink, 6; narrow escapes death, 3; ruined life, 1; divorce, 1; assaulting constables, 5 ; theft, 4; breach prohibition orders, 7; other offences, 16; total for one month, llfi offences. I venture to declare that if such % total of crime and misery resulted- from any other cause mi earth that cause would be quickly removed from our. midst. In Invercargill and Oamaru such cases as described above have already almost ceased to figure in the court' records. In Port; Chalmers last month there were, thirty criminal offences. I. investigated these, and found that at least twenty-four of them were chronicled in your columns as due to drink. Thus has Port Chalmers proved, as San Francisco proved after the earthquake, that nearly all criminal offences flow from drink. I hope the time will soon come when we shall realise, as San Francisco realised, that unless we charge the sellers at least six times as much for their license fees as at present they actually cost the country a great deal more as crimeproducers than they give it as revenue. Immediately they realised this' in ’Frisco they raised, the license foe from £l7 a year to £IOO a year,,,,and abolished grocers’ licensee. This is the liquor ? traffic Jn. dollars ; you cannot, count it in broken hearts and ruined lives.—l am, etc., G. B. Nicholes. Julv 51.