§ MR. W. F. LAWRENCE (Liverpool, Abercromby)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether his attention has been called to the varied system of tabulating the arrests for drunkenness, by which the usual annual Return is prejudiced in value as an index of intemperance; whether his Department would consider whether by some general instructions from it the local authorities could be persuaded to adopt some common basis of tabulation; and, whether, failing any adequate results there from, he could suggest the issue of any other Return likely to be more accurate as an index of intemperance, such as the coroners' verdicts on persons found to have died of intemperance?
§ *SIR MATTHEW WHITE RIDLEYMy attention has not been called to this matter, but I know that in the case of all Returns of this description there is great difficulty in securing their preparation on a uniform rule. If the hon. Member will inform the Home Office as to the points on which the preparation of the Return differs in different forces, instructions will be issued with a view to securing uniformity. The hon. Member will find that the number of verdicts of deaths from excessive drinking is given in the Coroners' Returns in the Judicial Statistics, but there is reason to think 1027 that coroners' juries vary much in giving this verdict, and that it cannot be regarded as an index to the amount of intemperance.