STATISTICAL PROOF

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 13, Issue 52, 11 February 1949, Page 4

STATISTICAL PROOF

Sir, —From time to time we are told that the solution to the problem of drunkenness is simple. Just extend selling hours, and' the desired result will follow. Yes, as simple, as that! But is it? A few years ago Britain had an experience, for which statistics are available, which shows just' what does happen wthen hours are extended. In 1913 in Great Britain, with selling hours from 16 to 19 daily, drunkenness convictions were 188,000. During the first war hours were cut down to 5 h daily, except in certain areas, and drunkenness convictions and deaths from alcoholism reached their lowest. , In 1921 hours were extended to 9 per day. The result? Greater, London showed an increase in drunkenness convictions of 39 per cent. Certain areas where hours were increased to 8 per day showed increased drunkenness convictions of 11 per cent. But at the same time those areas that had been allowfed to retain their original 16 hours were reduced to 8 hours/daily; here convicted drunkenness decreased by 32 per cent. These statistics so clearly reveal the relationship between hours and the incidence of drunkenness that the British Royal Commission (1932) stated. “We have set down, in the introduction to our report, our conviction that restriction in hours has been of great value in promoting, sobriety.” Since then, have the nature of man and the nature of “booze” changed so much that 10 .o’clock closing will now do what it previously could not accomplish? Yours etc., .AWAKE.