AGY-5269 | Intoxicating Drink Inquiry Commission

Full description

The Commission was set up to make a full inquiry into the causes of the excessive use of intoxicating drink by the people of N.S.W., the deterioration it had produced in public morality and the extent to which legislation had been effective or otherwise in repressing the vice of drunkenness and regulating the traffic in liquor throughout N.S.W.  (1)

Subjects investigated in the report included : consumption of liquor in N.S.W. ( analysed in detail in tables and compared with the statistics of other countries ) ; quality of liquor consumed ; drunkenness as a national evil ; repressive measures (1) penal (2) remedial (3) restrictive ; arrests & convictions for drunkenness and the closing of public houses on Sundays and setting of business hours on weekdays. (2)

The Commission recommended that punishing people convicted of habitual intoxication with fines and imprisonment was not working . Rather they should be viewed as suffering from a disease and would derive greater benefit from short-term confinement in reformatory institutions. (3)

Re-arrangement of licensing districts to correspond with electoral districts was recommended ; a statutory number of liquor licenses  ( one per 80 electors in Sydney, and one per 100 in the rest of N.S.W. ) ; the continuation of the prohibition of Sunday drinking plus early closing on weekdays ( from 12 o'clock to 11 o'clock )  (4)



Endnotes :
(1)  Votes and Proceedings, 1887 - 88, Vol. 7, p. 3
(2)  Ibid
(3)  Ibid, p.52
(4)  D.H. Borchardt, Checklist of Royal Commissions, Select Committees of Parliament and Boards of Inquiry. Part 1V. New South Wales, 1855 - 1960, Latrobe University Library, 1975, p. 127