Reforming the Toper

New Zealand Tablet, 1 October 1908, Page 9

Reforming the Toper

If Parliament acts upon the lead of the Government (and we hope it will), there are strenuous times coming for habitual drunkards— the talented topers who follow not wisely but too well the drinking motto of Rabelais' Gargantua, and dfown both the thirst that is present and the thirst that is to come The Wellington correspondent of -the Otago Daily Times states that the AttorneycGeneral (the Hon. Dr. Findlay) will move to insert sundry new clauses into the Police Offences Amendment - Bill, when that measure comes before the Council in Committee The gist of the new clauses is given as follows :— ' The definition of habitual drunkard " in the principal Act is extended to include a person twice convicted of breach of a prohibition order. Justices of the peace are not to have jurisdiction to deal with habitual drunkards. The duration of an order for detention is not to exceed three years. Every person, other than a registered medical practitioner, who, without the written authority of a mag»strate or registered medical practitioner, procures, attempts to procure, or delivers any intoxicating liquor for a person detamed in an institution for habitual drunkards is • liable to a • fine not exceeding £ 20 . On receipt of a written application from a person detained in such an institution, a magistrate may • order his release on probation, subject to such conditions as the magistrate thinks fit. On any breach of such conditions the mag»strate may cancel the order, and send him back to the institution,' or any similar institution, to complete his term When any. person has been convicted of any offence punishableby imprisonment, and the judge or magistrate is satisfied that

the offence was committed under the influence of drink, and that the offender has been thrice convicted of drunkenness within the preceding nine months, or is the subject of a prohibition order, and has been twice convicted of a breach thereof, the judge or magistrate may, in addition to or in lieu of, imprisonment, order the offender to.be detained in an institution for habituai - drunkards. -A magistrate is to- be given -power to remove a habitual drunkard"* from one - institution to another, or to a hospital. A judge or magistrate ■ may issue a warrant for the arrest of a person^ against wfiom an order, for detention as a habitual has been made. '