DRUNKENNESS IN NEW ZEALAND

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14355, 27 October 1908, Page 2

DRUNKENNESS IN NEW ZEALAND

FIGURES FROM POLICE REPORTS. The Rev. Edward Walker has been looking into'the. police reports of some years past which are annually laid before 'Parliament, and has gent to the Lyttclton Times a compilation from the reports. Ho chows from tho figures he gives that/ tho number of persons each year charged with drunkenness has for a number of years past been increasing, and that more than half of them in each year have been persons against whom there was known no previous conviction, at least as far ■back as the roports' show tho number not previously convicted—namely, for the last seven years. The number of those against whom there wae no previous record for these seven years amounts to 35,964, which, Mr Walker says, would to himself' seeni incredible, but there tho plain figures etand in the official annual police reports. If the 36,96* persons were, all living and in the Dominion at the end of last year they would be only a small fraction" kss than 1 in 27 of last year's population. Mr Walker says that- many of ihem would nob bo inebriates who were' mere beginners, awl that many escape being charged with drunkenness all their lives, but he adds, "there are obvious inferences as to the extent to which exressive drinking is taking a liold of the tountry, and the extent, to which young men are. increasingly becoming ids victims, by which the supply of persons charged with drunkenness is kept up and increased." With jtlio two colmmie of figures from the police reports he has given the population calculated on the Registar-gcnwal'fi quarterly returns and the "drink bill," calculating at per gallon rates the licnior which passed through the Customs and excix'. It is apparent, he says, that the charged with drunkenness .have l>een increasing at a. much, .greater rate than the population, and that the remarkable increase of the drink bill last year was accompanied by a' no less remarkable increase in the number both of pel-sons charged with drunkenness and, among them, of persons against whom there was no ''known record of any previous conviction.

Of. the 10,203 charged with • drunken- ' ne?s last year, all but 28—namely, 10,175, ; irere convicted, 831 being -women.. '. ' < }lv Walker adds that-- another record ■ of public interest in connection with the i drink question contained' in the police re- i port for last year is that of the fines < imposed on sly grag-sellers in the eight 1 police districts into which the Dominion ' is divided—namely, Auckland,' £472; ! Thames, nil; Napier, 2s;. Wangamri, ; £125; Wellington, £39; Greymouth. nil • ' Christchurch, £420; Dunedin, £290'; Inyercargffi, £45. While the Christchurch \ inspector reports that in his district the ■ offeme© is principally in Ashburton aiid , Oamarn, tire Dunedin inspector reports : that _of 13 prosecutions in the Dunedin ; district one only was in the' portion of ' Clutlra, included in that district, ami'that j there i 6 evidence there of the offence ' beinj? reduced to a minimum; and the , Invercargill inspector reports: '"There have been 11 prosecutions for sly grog- ] selling, resulting in eight convictions ; at . the present trans tbero is no evidence < tliat such sales are being carried on to any appreciable extent in either Invercargill or Mat-aura electorate, or in Ta-pa-mii j ot Clinton sub-district." He also re- t ports: "The brewery depots at Waikiwi < on the border of the Jio-liceiwe district. Lave been closed, but are in two instances being. replaced by breweries. This is to < bo regretted, Seeing that the latter are ( under lees restrictions as to conduct-, being 1 able to sell irrespective of hour." The ' Police Commissioner states in th? report-: ' " Tile direct cost to the Dominion in ) detecting and prosecuting slygrog-scllcrs during-the year was £809'10° sd, this keing £581 lis 7d lees than the'amount ( of lines imposed." "It is evident." Mr 1 Walker concludes, "from the foregoing 1 statement of lines imposed in the several £ jwlice districts that the offence is one not ' l>y any means peculiar .to no-license ' '■Teal" ■ ■ (

Separate Not known W ■ . * Persons have been 'Amount Charged with. Previously perlifiadof Year. Drunkenness. Convicted. Population. Drink Bill. Population 1805 .. 4,563 — 703,360 £2rl23,199- £3 0 5 1S9G ... 4,822 757,603 2 265,900 2 lO 8£ 1807 .. 5,060 — 762,079 2,371,738 3 2. 2 J 189S *,. 5,453 — 776.2S8 - 2,45S,998 3 3 4 1899 ,... G,194 — 790,397 2,557,968 3 -4- 0 1900 ..., 7,252 — 303,333 2,747,170 3 8 4* 1001 „. : 8,032 445G 822:779 2,922,982 3 II 0J 1002 .. 3,244 • 5202 840,031 2,953,298 3 10 32 1903 .. 8,815 _ 4944 " ~86S,S60 3,056.590 - 3 10 7J . 1904 „ 9,615 5263 SS9,776 3,152,849 3 10 10J 1005 „ 3,707 5141 915,060 3,120,705 3 S 23 1006 .. 9,210 5141 944;490- 3,360,121 3 11 12 I 1007 .. 10,203 5S00 - 9G7,017 3.667,370 3 15 10