591
tried for the last two years.
It would be fallacious to dwell on the lives of a single year as illustrative of the real state of the Colony. Taking them over consecutive periods of five years - that is, the annual average for the five years from 1869 to 1871 inclusive, and the annual average for the five years from 1872 to 1876 - obtained by the return of the five following years.
Minor Offences Crimes
1867-1871 1303 4415
1872-1876 1351 5778 7124
Growth of population is in fact the chief cause that the average crimes increased in the five years 1872-1876 as compared with the five years preceding, from 1867 to 1871, and that the annual number of offences of all kinds increased from 5718 in the former period to 7194 in the latter.
This increase of crimes, and the still more remarkable increase of prison offenders of late years, have been reported to me by the Superintendent of the 3d of August, in relation to each other, and they both perhaps indirectly bear upon some trend.