SOME “DRY” STATISTICS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1730, 15 September 1917, Page 1

SOME “DRY” STATISTICS.

In his address to the Grand Jury at Masterton, Sir Robert Stout, Chief Justice, quoted some remarkable figures.. He said in part:— I have taken the charges of all kinds brought before the Magistrate’s Court at Masterton for the years 1906 up to December, 1916. In the first 24 years your district was a licensed, or, as it is ; popularly termed, a “wet” district. Since June, 1909, the Masterton electoral district has been a “dry” district, and whatever the cause of the decline of criminal charges may be, the offences have greatly decreased. In the figures I give first the year, then the total charges made, including all offences, both large and small, then the cases of drunkenness, then all other charges not of drunkenness.

*Of 26 of these, 8 were arrested off the Holmwood and Tenni coaches, 12 at the railway stations, and 6 on arrival of motor car from Carterton.

Taking the last 7 years, 1910 to 1916, only one person residing in the Masterton Electoral District in all these years lias been sentenced to imprisonment by the Supreme Court sitting at Masterton, and that was a native of the Celestial Empire, in 1910. There have been two other convictions, but one was fined and the other granted probation. NO NEED FOR GAOLS. Now Masterton Electoral District has about one 78th of the population of the Dominion. In these 7 years there have been over 2,000 persons sent to prison by the Supreme Court. If all the Dominion were like Masterton one gaol would be all that would lie necessary for the Dominion, instead of eight large and several police prisons. It may bo asked, what are the charges of serious crime for the past 7 years that have come before the Supreme Court sitting at Masterton? There have been in all 20 persons charged; 0 came from Masterton, 4 from Pabiatua, and 10 from the other Wairarapa Eolectorates, In whatever way the criminal statistics are viewed they speak well for the dry district. lam sure no distinction can he made between the people in the Masterton Electorate and in the Wairarapa District. Both are of good stock. In the one district, however, there is the temptation of the open saloon, in the other that temptation is not present, and it is for our people to consider whether that fact explains the figures I have given.

The fall in the crime in the Masterton district I have already alluded to. There were in the licensing days of Masterton, that is in the years 1907 and 1908, 965 charges, whilst in 1915 and 1910 the charges numbered only 264 —a little more than one-fourth. The people have not so changed in 8 years as to cause all this difference in charges. How, then, is the change to be explained?

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Chamberlain’s Cough’ Remedy contains no opium or other narcotic and may bo given,as confidently to a child as to an adult. For sale everywhere. —Advt.

1907 457 250 291 1908 499 302 197 1909 325 ■ 155 170 1910 105 39 00 1911 104 34 70 1912 125 32 93 1913 143 51 92 1914 133 49 84 1915 130 50 80 1910 128 08* 00