Crime in Prohibition Territory.

Hokitika Guardian, 3 October 1922, Page 1

Crime in Prohibition Territory.

The Vancouver correspondent of the “Lyttelton Times” writes that an abstract of criminal statistics just issued for the past year by the Canadian Bureau of Statistics indicates that the various prohibition measures adopted by tbc Dominion provinces have done nothing to neutralise the crime of the country as a whole. Tho figures for 1921 show that the total number of convictions for indictable offences increased by 953. or 5.2 per cent over 1920. The increase in 1020 over 1919 was only 4.7 per cent. For non-indiet-akle offences where fines were imposed there were 157.704 convictions in 1921 an increase of 13,439, or 9.3 per cent, over the 1920 figures. Under the heading of drunkenness, however, there is a decrease of 5407 in the convictions, the 1921 total being 38,955, compared with 44,362, the 1920 figures. Convictions for driving a motor vehicle while intoxicated increased from 144 to 239. and. for being disorderly from 793 to 926. Gambling, however decreased from 303 convictions in 1920 to 289 in 1921. General W. S. Hughes, superintendent of penitentiaries, stated that the number of persons confined in tlie Dominion penitentiaries bad more than doubled since 1918.,->Nb explanation was given for tWP&mt.— *