CRIMINAL STATISTICS.

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2139, 15 March 1870, Page 2

CRIMINAL STATISTICS.

To the Editor of the Evening Star. Sir, —Having perchance taken up a copy of your paper of the 3rd inst., my eyes fell upon a local with the above heading, and being curious in figures, I was induced, not only to read the paragraph, but to test the accuracy of the calculations, and ascertain, if possible, the extent of crime and police vigilance in this Province. The paragraph states; —“ We learn from the Police Gazette that 82 apprehensions^exclusive of 81 for drunkenness and minor offences, were made by the police during the past month. Of this number 39 were for disorderly conduct, assault, &c. ; 8 for lunacy ; 5 for being illegally on premises ; 9 for theft; 8 for being neglected children within the meaning of the Act, 1597 : 2 for larceny ; 1 for horse-stealing; 1 for attempting to stab ; 1 for vagrancy; 1 for obtaini; g goods under false pretences ; and 3 for indecency. In 58 ca es convictions were obtained.” The total of these serious offences as per above figures is only 78, leaving four to be accounted for, and it is not probable that thev were more serious than those enumerated. Now, sir, let us see what amount of serious crime has been committed, and we shall find it, I am happy to say, absolutely nothing. If in the first place we substract from the 82 serious offences 39 disorderly conduct, assaults, dfec., 8 unfortunate lunatics, and 8 still more unfortunate neglected children, it will leave only 27 cases, and these figures may be still further reduced by deducting the 4 not mentioned, 1 vagrancy, and 3 indecency, bringing it down to 19, Of these 19, I find 9 for theft—this is far too indefinite to make anything of ; 2 for larceny (X presume common or petty larceny, goods exposed, by a servant or a lodger) ; 1 for’horsestealing, this is doubtless a serious offence in an open province like Otago, where such facilities occur for committing the offence and getting rid of the booty, but as this could nob be dealt with summarily, of course there was a committal, and there being no Criminal Sittings of the Supreme Court at Dunedin until the Ist instant, it could not be classed among the fifty-eight cases in which convictions were obtained, besides, at this day, it is known that a young man in a drunken frolic took a horse at Oamaru, and was riding about the township from one public-house to another upon it. Being arrested he was charged with horse-stealing, and at the Supreme Court was of course discharged : thus the case of horse-stealing is disposed of, leaving only one case attempting ( o stab, and one for obtaining goods under false pretences, of which I know nothing, and therefore will leave as I find them. The 58 convictions were for the most part made up of the 55 cases first described, and for the first time in my life 1 have found recorded as other than minor offences. Lunacy, I take it, is not an offence, but a misfortune, and I cannot help thinking that some such unfortunate must have compiled the said criminal statistics. —I am, &c., Fact. Dunedin, March 15, 1870.