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Hokitika Guardian, 21 September 1931, Page 4

Tx the annual report on the Poljee Force presented to Parliament the statistics show that out of a total number of 6125 persons who were charged with drunkenness last year in New Zealand no fewer than 3964 had not been previously convicted of this offence. This indicates that only about one-third of the prosecutions involved persons against whom convictions had been recorded on former occasions. While the number of first convictions was regrettably heavy, the lapses represented by them are the more remarkable since if there is one inference which is, more than any other, to be drawn from these statistics over a series of years it is that d unkemnoris a vice that is steadily diminishing jn the Dominion. The extent of the consumption of liquor is no doubt governed in large measure by the economic conditions of a country. There is an accumulation of evidence that the bar trade in the hotels in the Dominion has dwindled considerably during recent months. A great many persons simply have not money to spend on liquor such as they had when the hulk of the male population Was in the imjoyhlent of steady employment. The years in which cj'iinkeimes.s was' most "rife in New Zealand were 1014 and, 1015, when money was circulating freely, and when, moreover, the feverish excitement induced by the war led to certain looseness

cluct. It is, however, • a most strik ing circumstance that the number of persons who were charged with drunkenness in the Dominion last year wa.s sin "Her than in any year since 1898. In that year the number of persons charged with the offence was 5559 and the number convicted was 15458. Between 1997 and 1916 there wa.s no year in which the convictions did net exceed 10.000 in number. In 1914 they numbe-ed 13,145, and in the following year the-number was 12,962. From 1915 the tendency was towards a fall i n the number. In 1928 the convictions totalled 0310 and in 1929 they were 6816. The prosecutions last year fell to 6125—a decrease of nearly 700 in comparison with the previous year. It may be conjectured that the figures for the prevent year will show a further decline in the number of persons charged with the offence. Even, however, though depressed conditions will have had their effect in producing a decline in# the .satisfactory conclusion; that the community is steadily becoming a more sober community seems to be completely justified by the official records.