DRUNKENNESS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 9325, 30 March 1889, Page 2 (Supplement)

DRUNKENNESS.

0 According to an English Parliamentary paper, thore were in England and Wales during the three years 1885-87, 442,736 convictions for drunkenness or offences arising therefrom, and of those 40,384 offences were committed on Sunday. It would appear that the proportion of Sunday offences is rather greater in Wales, than in England, for in the principality thoy were '2594 out of 23,493, and in England 37,790 out of 41'), total convictions. In the Metropolitan Police district the number of convictions has fallen from 1G,758 in 1885 to 14,880 in 1887 and this was in spite of a rise to 18,578 in the intervening year), while Sunday convictions fell from 1389 to 1217 in the same interval. For the purposes of this return Sunday is supposed to begin half an hour after midday, and those who get intoxicated and commit offences before that time are reckoned as week-day sinners. If the year 1887 be taken alone, of all offences committed in Wales through drunkenness one in every nine is committed on Sunday ;in England, one in every 11; and in London, one in every twelve. It is more interesting to note that, in the throe years taken together, in Wales one offence was committed for every 57 inhabitants (the 1881 census is taken), in England one for every 59, and in London one for every 94. It should also bo mentioned to the credit of Helston, St. Ives, Bideford, Booke-cum-Linacre, St. Helen's, Stamford, Bumbury, Basingstoke, Chard, Southwold, and Sudbury that in these towns no case of Sunday drunkenness is recorded during any one of the three years. On the other hand, of the 21 offences (of the kind named) in the county of Flint during 1887 as many as 17 were committed on Sunday.