CRIMINAL STATISTICS OF NEW SOUTH WALES, 

 FROM THE YEAR 1860 TO THE YEAR 1873. 



Bt Cheistopheb Eolleston, Esq., Auditor G-eneral. 



[^Bead before the Royal Society, September 23, 1874.] 



Me. Christopher Eolleston read the following paper " On the 

 Criminal Statistics of New South Wales," explaining at the outset 

 that it was merely a fragmentary insight into statistics of crime. 

 At first he intended to have made a perfect paper, but found he 

 had not the material to enable him to do so ; he had therefore 

 used what information he had, and had only referred to and 

 analysed the statistics of the Colony during the period they had 

 been taken, reserving further investigation on the subject: — 



The science of moral statistics is one which every well- 

 governed Country ought to cultivate, the most important branch 

 of which is that which relates to the commission of crime ; aud 

 it is one of those most easily susceptible of numerical computa- 

 tion. The nature of the act is generally sufficient to indicate the 

 object aimed at. The sex, age, civil and social condition of the 

 ofi"ender point out the principal circumstances which influence 

 the method of the act. The degree of instruction he has 

 received will to some extent indicate the degree of moral re- 

 straint to which he is subject, while the immediate motives, when 

 not inferable from the visible circumstances of the case, will be 

 found on investigation to be much fewer in number, more simple 

 in character, and easier of classification than is generally sup- 

 posed. Almost all crimes have upon investigation been referred 

 by English Statisticians to one of four motives, viz. : — desire of 

 gain, indulgence of sexual passions, malice, or wantonness. 

 Having lately been led to an examination of our criminal statis- 

 tics, I propose to lay the results of the investigation before the 

 Society this evening. This, of course, is not the place in which 

 the subject in its 'political bearing, as it is connected with the 

 education controversy, should be discussed. It is in a philan- 

 thropical point of view that I approach its consideration in the 

 light which the recorded facts of the last thirteen years throw 

 upon the question in regard to the Country in which we live. 



