These three categories include all offences which are strictly 'criminal' in character. The great bulk of offences, which may involve commitment to Prison, are not strictly 'criminal.' The principal offences in this category are Drunkenness, Offences against Police Regulations, Bye-laws, Highways Acts and Education Acts. The following Table shows that the actual number of these offences rose continuously from 1873 to 1907. Between the latter date and 1913 there was a fall in the actual numbers, and relatively to population, the figure for 1913 (1649·99) showing a decrease of no less than 157·51 per 100,000 of the population, as compared with 1873-7:—
| Offence. | Quinquennial averages. | Year1913 | ||||
| 1873-77 | 1883-87 | 1893-97 | 1903-07 | 1908-12 | ||
| Drunkenness | 195,682 | 180,462 | 179,496 | 219,675 | 188,813 | 204,038 |
| Education Acts, offences against | 18,320 | 80,566 | 64,924 | 56,117 | 40,763 | 44,030 |
| Highway Acts " " | 16,743 | 18,847 | 30,677 | 47,313 | 62,405 | 76,011 |
| Police Regulations, Bye-laws, breach of | 59,393 | 62,028 | 88,848 | 131,600 | 100,842 | 106,509 |
| Vagrancy | 15,193 | 26,694 | 25,228 | 34,857 | 41,267 | 27,523 |
| Total non-criminal offences | 434,620 | 496,341 | 534,844 | 630,474 | 578,486 | 609,166 |
| Ratio per 100,000 of population | 1807·50 | 1823·39 | 1756·38 | 1854·94 | 1616·25 | 1649·99 |
The following Table is interesting in showing the committals to prison for the last three decades, commencing in 1881—the earliest date from which the comparison is possible. It will be observed that the Prison population in 1883 stood as high as 622 per 100,000 of the population of the country, and that for the year ended 31st March, 1914 it had fallen to the lowest then recorded, viz:—369. The great decrease that has taken place since 1914, as will be shown subsequently, reduced the ratio to 70 per 100,000 of the population:—
| Year ended 31st March. | Convicted of Indictable Offences tried at Assizes and Sessions. | Convicted of Offences tried summarily. | Total. Committals on Conviction. | Per 100,000 of population of the Country. | ||
| Indictable. | Non-indictable. | |||||
| 1881 | 9,528 | 139,546 | 149,074 | 580 | ||
| 1882 | 10,550 | 150,888 | 161,438 | 621 | ||
| 1883 | 10,069 | 153,645 | 163,714 | 622 | ||
| 1884 | 9,780 | 151,056 | 160,836 | 604 | ||
| 1885 | 9,886 | 150,096 | 159,982 | 594 | ||
| 1886 | 9,617 | 138,015 | 147,632 | 542 | ||
| 1887 | 9,611 | 144,989 | 154,600 | 562 | ||
| 1888 | 9,024 | 138,755 | 147,779 | 531 | ||
| 1889 | 9,198 | 144,765 | 153,963 | 547 | ||
| 1890 | 8,180 | 137,088 | 145,268 | 511 | ||
| 1891 | 7,843 | 132,789 | 140,632 | 490 | ||
| 1892 | 8,302 | 128,958 | 137,260 | 473 | ||
| 1893 | 8,542 | 136,996 | 145,538 | 495 | ||
| 1894 | 8,590 | 147,876 | 156,466 | 526 | ||
| 1895 | 7,991 | 139,836 | 147,827 | 492 | ||
| 1896 | 7,933 | 146,019 | 153,952 | 506 | ||
| 1897 | 7,386 | 140,727 | 148,113 | 482 | ||
| 1898 | 8,004 | 145,961 | 153,965 | 496 | ||
| 1899 | 8,315 | 151,744 | 160,059 | 510 | ||
| 1900 | 7,194 | 146,266 | 153,460 | 483 | ||
| 1901 | 7,091 | 141,509 | 148,600 | 461 | ||
| 1902 | 7,764 | 159,232 | 166,996 | 513 | ||
| 1903 | 8,271 | 168,286 | 176,557 | 535 | ||
| 1904 | 8,640 | 21,730 | 159,518 | 189,888 | 569 | |
| 1905 | 8,761 | 21,784 | 167,396 | 197,941 | 586 | |
| 1906 | 8,972 | 21,890 | 164,194 | 195,056 | 571 | |
| 1907 | 8,966 | 20,272 | 149,105 | 178,343 | 516 | |
| 1908 | 9,091 | 20,886 | 146,625 | 176,602 | 505 | |
| 1909 | 9,613 | 21,710 | 153,578 | 184,901 | 523 | |
| 1910 | 9,500 | 21,381 | 149,080 | 179,961 | 503 | |
| 1911 | 9,136 | 18,758 | 139,801 | 167,695 | 465 | |
| 1912 | 8,756 | 17,668 | 132,443 | 158,867 | 439 | |
| 1913 | 8,781 | 17,102 | 125,081 | 150,964 | 413 | |
| 1914 | 7,738 | 15,598 | 113,088 | 136,424 | 369 | |
For many years past, a marked decrease has taken place in the number of persons sentenced to penal servitude. In 1872, there was a convict population of 8,823 males and 1,249 females. This had fallen to 2,568 males and 98 females at the end of 1913-14, representing a decrease of over 70 per cent. As will be seen from the following Table, the average length of sentence has also fallen considerably:—
| Sentence | Sentences of convicts in custody on the last day of each of the following years— | |||
| 1872 | 1891-2; | 1902-3 | 1913-14 | |
| Life | 152 | 268 | 138 | 128 |
| Above 15 years | 101 | 177 | 64 | 38 |
| 15 years and over 10 years | 308 | 332 | 166 | 73 |
| 10 years and over 5 years | 7,898 | 1,498 | 581 | 343 |
| 5 years and over 3 years | 1,613 | 1,726 | 1,141 | 830 |
| 3 years | 28 | 819 | 1,254 | |
| Total | 10,072 | 4,029 | 2,909 | 2,666 |
The most gratifying feature shown by the comparison of statistics prior to 1914 is the wonderful decrease in the number of convictions under 21 years of age. These figures can be traced as far back as 1848:—
| Year | Under 12 | 12 and Under 16 | 16 and Under 21 | |||
| M. | F. | M. | F. | M. | F. | |
| 1848 | 1,332 | 215 | 10,537 | 1,718 | 21,324 | 6,307 |
| 1856 | 1,674 | 316 | 10,134 | 1,857 | 17,655 | 7,231 |
| 1866 | 1,485 | 152 | 6,614 | 1,105 | 18,480 | 6,147 |
| 1873 | 1,370 | 112 | 6,692 | 1,185 | 19,992 | 7,033 |
| 1876 | 940 | 58 | 5,292 | 848 | 20,356 | 6,572 |
| 1886 | 229 | 21 | 4,016 | 547 | 19,813 | 5,143 |
| 1896 | 59 | 1 | 1,336 | 102 | 13,433 | 2,924 |
| 1906 | 3 | — | 999 | 30 | 15,878 | 2,248 |
| 1910 | 1 | — | 139 | 3 | 12,236 | 1,186 |
| 1911 | — | — | 32 | 2 | 10,380 | 1,163 |
| 1912 | — | — | 22 | 1 | 8,265 | 938 |
| 1913 | — | — | 27 | 5 | 7,789 | 900 |
| 1914 | — | — | 12 | — | 6,320 | 858 |