CANON CORRECTED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23492, 5 May 1938, Page 12

CANON CORRECTED

CRIME AND DRUNKENNESS DECREASE IN NEW ZEALAND "AN INSULT" RESENTED (Special to Daily Times) CHRISTCHURCH, May 4. Interesting figures dealing with the decrease of crime arid drunkenness in the Dominion were used by the Minister of Public Works (Mr R. Semple) when replying to the charges made by a visitor to New Zealand, Canon E. Gowring. This visitor, in an interview at Auckland, claimed that the changes which had taken place in the last 45 years in New Zealand (since he was last here as a New Zealander) included an increase in crime among young men, and " more drunkenness than he had ever seen in England, where it was bad enough." "I consider that this canon's statements about crime and drunkenness constitute an insult to our young men and women, and an infamous falsehood generally," Mr Semple said. The Minister emphasised that much was being done by the Government to reduce the evils spoken of by Canon Gowring, but that in any case they were so far from being as bad as he had stated that actually all the available statistics indicated a decrease under both headings. " Outrageous Statement " "In the face of figures which prove him wrong, however, this Christian gentleman gives this amazing exhibition of Christian chanty and wisdom and makes an outrageous statement of this nature, and then he gets on his running shoes and leaves the country," Mr Semple continued. "Considering the amazing increase there has been in national prosperity, it might have been expected that there would be an increase in drunkenness and petty crime, but the opposite has been the case. I wish that this critical canon had read the figures before he made his ridiculous contentions. All the available figures indicate that, instead of crime increasing among young people in New Zealand, it is steadily decreasing. Look at the report of the Prisons Department for 1937. In 1932, 222 persons under 20 years of age were imprisoned. In 1933 the figure dropped to 173, and since then it has dropped successively to 120 in 1934, with a slight increase in 1935 and a substantial drop again in 1936, until the figure then stood at 96. In fact, the number of people imprisoned under 25 years of age dropped by no fewer than 100 during the year. The indications are that the most recent figures, when they are available, will show a further substantial decline. This does not appear to bear out the contention of the critical canon that' there is an increase in crime among young men.' Lowest Figures Recorded

" Dealing with drunkenness, the Year Book points out that convictions for drunkenness during each of the last four years are the lowest recorded since 1895," Mr Semple said. "In 1895 the proportion of convictions for drunkenness per 1000 of the mean population was 6.52, while in 1936 it was 2.88. This covers adequately the period of 45 years surveyed by Canon Gowring. There was a slight increase, in the total number of convictions for drunkenness during 1936, but this total included convictions for repeated drunkenness, and in times of prosperity the figures reveal that under this factor there is inevitably an increase."