AUSTRALIAN MORALITY. 475 



against person and property, the figures include such minor matters 

 as breaches of municipal by-laws, non-compliance with various 

 orders of the court, and technical breaches of various Land Acts, 

 Fisheries Acts, Masters and Servants Acts, etc., many of which 

 were unwittingly committed. Convictions for drunkenness also 

 are responsible for a large proportion of the total. Logically, it 

 can hardly be claimed that simple intemperance in drinking is 

 any more criminal than intemperance in eating, although the 

 effects of the former are as a rule more clearly apparent. At all 

 events the old-fashioned idea of sentencing the dipsomaniac to 

 imprisonment, or mulcting him or her in a fine, has proved to be 

 quite worthless as a deterrent, the same faces constantly reappearing 

 before the magistrates. Moreover, the practice of sending the 

 drunkard to gaol to herd with real criminals is not only foolish, 

 but dangerous, as the drink-soddened brain appears to be remark- 

 ably susceptible to evil suggestion. In an investigation by the 

 writet some years ago it was found that over 40 per cent, of the 

 prisoners in New South Wales gaols had commenced their criminal 

 career with a short sentence for drunkenness. Fortunately, it is 

 becomnig more widely recognised that dipsomania is rather a 

 disease than a crime, and the tendency nowadays is to segregate 

 the drunkards in special institutions. It is pleasing, however, to 

 be able to record a great improvement in the sobriety of the people, 

 as judged by the records of the convictions on this charge. This 

 will be seen from the following table shewing the convictions for 

 drunkenness together with the rate per 1000 of the population 

 at various intervals since 1861 : — 



CONVICTIONS FOR DRUNKENNESS IN THE COMMONWEALTH, 



1861-1908. 



Convictions. 1861. 1871. 1881. 1891. 1901. 190|8. 



Total .. .. 8,866 16,375 37,166 40,372 50,375 50,590 



Rate per 1000 of the 



population .. 1746 1060 1672 1267 11-96 1195 



Complete returns for all the States are not available prior to 1891, 

 and the rates for 1861 and 1871 have, therefore, been computed 

 on the populations for those States for which figures could be 

 obtained. 



It is frequently claimed that the statistics of drunkenness do 

 not of themselves offer a sufficiently reliable test of the relative 

 sobriety or otherwise of a community, and that they should be 

 supplemented by a statement of the amount of intoxicants con- 

 sumed per head of the population. Against this, however, it may 

 be urged that the larger portion of the alcohol which enters into 

 consumption is consumed by persons who are not drunkards, and 

 a very slight increase in the amount per head consumed by the 

 " moderates " could easily account for a considerable increase in 

 the total consumption. Such a statement would, moreover, be 



