THE BRINK BILL.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1896, 3 November 1913, Page 4

THE BRINK BILL.

LIQUOR AND NO-LICENSE. (By J. M'Comba.) In a former article on the New Zealand drink bill which was published in a number of newspapers in the Dominion I showed that while No-License had not stamped out drunkenness in tho areas affected, it had got rid of 80 per cent, of the evil. Mr. E. Nordou, secretary of the Canterbury Licensed Victuallers' Association, has Binco contributed a two-column article in reply. The same articlo appears in IThe Dominion newspaper signed "Moderate." The fact that it was written by the secretary of the C.L.V.A. in 110. way detracts from its facts, if they are facts. ' j The article starts out by referring to a Parliamentary return oalled for by Mr. Isitt, but throughout tho whole article tho writer carefully abstains from quoiing a single correct set - of figures from that return. Ho quotes the Customs returns for the Invercargill breweries saying "that tho consumption of liquor as represented by tho duty paid on beer manufactured in Invercargill and entered for home consumption was, etc." He is careful not to explain, that these breweries not only supply the beer depots planted on the borders of til® Invercargill electorate since No-License was carried, but also supply Bome of tho' licensed houses in the license electorates which surround Invercargill, and that the Customs term "entered for 'home consumption" means consumption within -the Dominion as against an esport trade. Excise duty is remitted on exported beer. In tho immediate vicinity of Invercargill. at Wakatipu, Awarua, and Wallace, there are sixty-six hotel licenses, twenty-four accommodation licenses, seven wholesale licenses and four packet licenses. Of course, all of these aro in license districts, and such evils as flow from them aro directly chargeablo to the evils of license.

The Invercargill breweries may not sol) liquor in tho Invercargill electorate, but have to supply it through the beer depots that have been planted outside th® boundaries of the electorate. (Since tho passing of the 1910 Licensing Act it is unlawful to establish any new beer depot within five miles _of tho boundary of a No-License district.) All liquor going from those depots or from the above licensed houses into Invercargill has to bo registered. This registration entails no extra excise duty, and there is absolutely 110 reason why the breweries should risk severe fines and punishments by furnishing incorrect returns. Now, according to these returns, furnished by tho itself, tho total quantity of'beer sent into Invercargill last year was 88,4853 gallons, not 148,870 gallons, as stated by Mr. Nordon. Not content with substituting the 148,000 gallons of "duty paid beer" which supplies more than tho Invercargill electorate; . Mr. tries _to imply that in addition to this, which ho calls perfectly legitimate consumption, thero goes into Invercargill 3250 two-galloa kegs per month, or 39,011 kegs per annum. Now, Mr. Nordon knows perfectly well that such_ a statement, to put it mildly, is nothing more nor. less than gross exaggeration. Tho 39,000 kegs mentioned are those furnished in tho return of 88,000 gallons, and together with bottles and barrels they account for the total consumption. THE POPULATION QUESTION. Tho population of Invercargill township, excluding the suburbs,. may be 12,782, a.s stated by Mr, Nordon; but we aro . discussing tlio Invercargill NoLieesiso : electorate, and its. "actual papulation," according to the 1911 census, was 14.645, a difference of nearly 2000; tat that is only a slight inaccuracv compared with what follows. We are 'told by "Moderate" that Invercargill has a population of "say 20,000," and that the arrests for drunkenness in 1912, according to a Parliamentary pivper Hl6, p. 3, were 297, and thero were altogether 832 persons arrested. Now, what aro tho facts? ARRESTS FOR DRUNKENNESS. The arrests for drunkenness referred to in the return Hl6 apply to tho whole of _ the _ Invercargill polico district, which includes a number of license electorates, and the papulation of which exceeds 60,000. Thero is no record that 832 persons -were arrested either in the Invercargill townshin, tfie Invercargill electorate or _ the Invercargill polico district. It is almost inconceivable that any man in his Ban© senses would try to distort facts- as they have been distorted by ''Moderate!" Tho distortion and misrepresentation is So dating as to bo almost unbelievable. Realising this, I invited the Mayor of Cliristchurch. Mr. H. Holland, to certify to the following facts, and I enclose his certificate. Tn my nrC'vions article I quoted Inspector "Mitchell's statement of 1909', that. —"Cases of drunkenness havo been few considering, etc.," which statement referred to tho Invercargill electorate.' "Moderate,"- in reply, quotes tho 1912 statement of Inspector O'Donoran, that the "cases of drunkenness havo increased bv forty-four during the year," and without explaining that Inspector O'Donovan was referring to the fxilico district, which is partly license. "Moderate" misieadingly goes on to say that drunkenness in NVLicenso Invercargill is evidently increasing, but the gem of misrepresentation comes when, he quotes Inspector Norwood as stating in the Police Report for 1913 that there was a further, increase on the Previous year of forty-two cases of drunkenness. (The Norwood statement which appeared in the Lytteltoii "Times" is missed out in The Dominion version.). Would it he believed that what Inspector Norwood reported was a doorcase of forty-two cases of drunkenness. not an increase? Tho following is the certified extract, from Inspector Norwood's report"Tliec. nrinpipal decreases occur under the following headings: Drunkenness, 42: sly-grog cases, 20; disorderly conduct, 17; vagra.uev. 8."

Inspector Norwood ?oep on to state: '"There has not- hen a large increaso i" pinulation in the district during the year. Inverearipll and Gore are mobabiv the cnlv places _ where thews has been an Appreciable increase. Tho inauguration of the tramway service- at Invereargill has caused an impetus of pomtlafron ill tho suburbs, aaid it will not be lon<T before additional police will bo required to ensure systematic patrol in the tbickly-popTtlatal parts in tho outsknW It might be remarked that Invercnnnll and Gore arc both No-License towns. Inspector O'Donovan in tho report for tho previous year said:—"Tho population of tbn Southland provincial district,'in IS'IOG was 35.181, and in 1911 58,728. The population of tho police district is ?.hnui fil,ooo. Tho proportion of police to population is about 1 to IfiOO. The population of Invercargill and area served by the police stationed ,|n the town is about 18.000." A general table in tho police report shows that the proportion of police to pbp"lation in tho Dominion is 1 to 12^7. The Dominion shows an irrrns" of "li arrests for drunkenness, tbe liivcii-ireill police district shows a decre:-- -r 4!? r SLY GROG. "Mo- 1 rate" states_tho 1912 sly grog fur - ■; Tnvercargill, AVanganui and X>ut as ho evidently had tho latest reports before liira I think ho iiii ;ht have pwi tho figures from the 1013 report, which . ahoiv that the ; amount eollwuj in flisasi for slj grog-'

soiling in the following police districts were as- follow:— Fines. £ Invercargill (partly no-licenso) 106 Wanganui (license) 112 Napier (license) 25 Tho amount of sly grog fines collected iu tho Dominion amounted to £1440 - 10s., ami tlio Invercargill police distt trict, with a population of 61,000 con- _ tributed a fourteenth. Invercargill has roughly one-sixteenth tho population of the Dominion. 11 The nearest I can got to the 832 al--0 leged arrests for crime in' Invercargill , is a total of 713, the number of offences j reported to the polico in 1912. Only a proportion of the persons concerned were arrested, because some were called by 1 summons and a few were not traced. a The number of offences reported for Napier and Wanganui. the two license a pohco district which, according to 3 ''Moderate,", are "similar in Bize and importance" to Invercargill, was 2197 3 and 2446 respectively. 0 OFFENCES REPORTED. 1 Invercargill (partly no-license) ... 71S 9 Wanganui (license) 2,445 B Napier (license) 2,197 j The number of offences reported in tho four big polico districts were ns 8 follow ■ Offences Reported. 1910. 1911. 1912. 1913. f Re- Ho- Re- R«i port. port. port. port. - Auckland 6,063 0,385 6,622 6,833 t Wellington 5,508 5,7,37 5,513 0,025 ! Christ-church 3,652 3,934 3,971 4,011 i Dunedin 2,116 2,167 1,940 1,773 3 . It will be seen that tho Dunodm 5 police district, which comes norrfc to the | Invercargill district, raid shares with 1 Invercargiil some or the southernmost • No-Licenßo electorates, besides having No-License electorates wholly within its 1 territory, ranks very much the lowest ' of the four big polico districts in the > matter of "offences reported." It is " also the only one of tho four which I stfiows a steady decline. ' MAYOR OF CHRISTCHTJRQH CERTI- ; FIES, ! _ The above deductions and th® opin- > ions expressed are my own, but the figures and extracts from police reports > are certified to as follow: — "1 havo examined tho police reports • for 1910, 1911, 1912, and 1913, and ner- ( t-ify to tho correctness of tho above figi ures and extracts."—(Signed) H. Hol- ; land, J.P., Mayor - of. Christehurch. • October 28, 1913." - As for No-License retarding progress, • the facts are these. With the opening j of new lands in tile North Island, popu- [ lation has drifted there, but, strangely : enough, tho number of No-License dis- > tricts 'in the North Island, and tho i population affected, is tho same as in the South Island.* Thore aro six NoLicense electorates in each.' But, while tho population may not be increasing as , rapidly in the South as in the North, there i'b ho laok of prosperity in Otago i and Southland, and some of the NoLicense districts are more than hold- , ing their own.—Vide Inspector O'Dono-l van's report, DOES NO-LICENSE RETARD PROGRESS? I find it difficult to treat tho statement seriously that No-License retards progress, bocause I find it difficult to believe that any sane man thinks that the money diverted from tho helpful channels of trade and commerce into the publican's till can possibly help the grocor, the butcher, tho baker, or tho •bootmaker. Tho liquor traffic i-a a pirato on tho sea of commerce; it performs no useful service to the eommun-: ity, and its continued existence means that £5,000,000 annually is diverted from the_useful trades and industries of the Dominion. ' INVERCARGILL BOROUGH INCOME. . But, lest anyone should think that No-License leads to stagnation, the following facts will bo instructive 1n'1905, the Inst year of license in Invercargill, tho,borough's income was £33,000; in 1912,' tho income was £83,000. ■ , Invercargill has now an ■ eiectrio tramway service, whioh had cost £90,000, than which there is no better ill the Dominion. Tho revenue from gas has risen from £10,000 in 1905 to £23,000 in 1912. ' The amount paid for water rates has risen from £5060 in 1905 to £7660 in 1912, an increase of over 50 per cent. At the first agricultural show held after no-license was carried the gate receipts were £212 more than they liad been the previous year. In 1905 tho employed 80 men; to-day it employs 230, and pays an average of £600 per week in wages. During the last 6ix years under NoLicense, the progress of Invercargill in the erection of private and public buildings has, exceeded that of any previous twelve vegrs under License. In tho last six years £387,124 has been spent' on buildings, as iigainst £210,000 in the previous six years. Rates all round havo been reduced during the last four or five .years. _ No-License works no detriment to any city. \ Tho borough of Invercargill owns gasworks, waterworks, tramways, abattoirs and a municipal theatre, all of whioh are profit-earning. When No-License was carried in Invercargill the hotelkeepers feared bankruptcy and financial Vuin. They felt that the fictitious value of their properties had vanished; but they havo not done so badly. Some of the properties depreciated in value, but others, when put to proper uses, "have largely increased their values. The lease of tho Club Hotel waß sold •roeentfy for £1000 more than its prico under License. Tho Albion Hotel's freehold changed, hands recently at £10,000. and'was then sold by a syndicate for "£IS>,OOO. The president of the Southland Chamber of Commerce recently said:—Business is good and sound, and commercial travellers are frequently heard ■ to say that th'ey consider In- ! ve rear gill one of tho best places to do : business in, in Now Zealand." < OTAGO AND SOUTHLAND PROSPEROUS. _'A special' Customs return tells practically the same tale in regard to the whole of the two southern provinces. Oamaru, Dunedin, and Invercargill aro the three norts of Ota.go and Southland. The return gives the figures ending .Tune for ,1904-5-6 and 1907-R-9. i At tho 1905 poll. liive.Tcargill and other i places carried No-License, but' it did not bceomo operative till Juno of tho • following year. _ Tho return shows tho i total value of imports for tho three ] ports as follows: — \ S, < 10034-5 7,864,639 1006-7-8 8,896,609 ] Increase £1,031,970 | An increase of over one million i rounds sterling in throe ycaTS hardly bears out "Moderate's" absurd' statement that dullness and stagnation ranidly overtakes all No-Licenso areas. 1 Extraordinary misleading is; "Mod- <j erate's" treatment of my figures, ' which, he says, lie accepts. The figures given show the total population of 5 Canterbury. Ot-ago, and Southland, but I "Moderate" Quotes them as the "popu- ( Minn of No-Licoiise areas," and the li No-License areas are, therefore, shown 1: to havo a. population in 100G of v 340.080. whereas the total population of tho twelve No-License a.reas -at the 1911 census was onlv 160.510. I need hardly follow tho calculations based on such a gross misquotation. 11 s DRUNKiA'NTWS AND CRIME IN J INVERCARGILL. b "Moderate's" other figures show- ® ing tho percentage of drunkenness j, tini crime in Invercargill and the rest ), sf tha Doiuiaion ora vitiated by hk j.

statement that Invefcargill has a population of 20,000, whereas tho Invercargill police district has a population of 61,000. Ho quotes tlio number of arrests for drunkenness in tiio police districts correctly, but does not give tho latest figures which show a decrease of forty-two cases. Accepting his 1932 police report figures wo may roughly divido his Invcrcargill percentages by threo (61,000 to 20,000) and wo get this result: — Arrest for drunkenness per ..thousand of population. Invercargill 4,9 Dominion 11.(3 "Moderate's 832 cases of crime bears such a slight ressm bianco to the truth, it is impossible with any approach to reason to treat fchem in the same way, but accepting them i'or the sake of argument und dividing tho Invercargill percentages by three wo get this result:— Cases of Crimo per thousand of population. Inverfiargill ig„9 Dominion 28.4 THE QUESTION OF EUGENICS. Having proved,, that "Moderate's" facts and figures aro exceedingly unreliable, are in fact a series of misquotations and misstatements tho readers will not be surprised to learn that m dealing with the question of eugenics "Moderate" has thought fit to ignore the overwhelming testimony of tho highest experts o& tlm question of nlcoliol being a racial poison. Ho does not even quote his one authority, Dr Mward Schuster fairly. He quotes him as criticising No-License advocates for saying' that moderate and abstemious consumers of alcoholic beverages "exercise by these habits & deleterious influence on their children." "When the reasoning on which tho assertions ore made as subjected to a critical examination, so many fallacies can be detected in it that no weight whatever can bo attached to tho conclusions." The quotation is loliborately dishonest, becimso ton essential words have been deleted from the paragraph. In the original after the words "their chilifell, those words occur: "What they say may bo truo or may not.!' What bohustor was criticising was the "unproved assertions" of "zealous supporters," and the whole context shows that. ' Moderate's" reason for suppressing the sentence which immediately follows his carefully-pruned paragraph ke obvious. Schuster goes on to say 'The cause of temperance rests on so firm a basis, it cannot bo permanently damaged by any form of misstatement." 1 do not wish to labour the point as to the deleterious effects even of a moderate use of alcohol save to say that exports are agreed that an occasional -'burst" is less deleterious to tho systom and to the germ plasm tiian continual but moderate nipping. But tho evil we aro dealing with is by no means confined to moderate drinking. The 11,000 arrests for drunkenness, 7000 of them being first offenders, gives some idea of the magnitude of fho evil hero in Now Zealand, ilie annual consumption on the average of 59 gallons a year or over a gallon a week for each household (family of five persons all ages) in the License electorates in tlio' Dominion does not mean a moderate consumption, because a number of drinkers do not consume as much, and thousands' of families are total abstainers.' The l'l/QOO arrests only .represent a fraction of the families cursed by tho drink evil, lie ninegallon consumption per annum per household in tlio No-License districts is more than enough, but it is a considerable improvement on 59 gallons. ' ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION NOT CREDITABLE. The only point on which " Moderate" and I seem to bo agreed is that a big alcohol consumption is not creditable to any district or to any cause. He has persuaded himself fey. peculiar 'methods of calculation that No-Lioenso is a bad tiling for the cause of temperance and a good thing for the brewories in that, it increases tlio consumption of alcohol.' If ho .can only persuade his employers, the Licensed Victuallers' Association, that his figures and deductions aro correct, tlio No-Licenso Party may soon expect to bo largely subsidised bv the breweries. It may seem improbable that a liquor advocate would resort to such daring exaggerations as I have exposed, but I have no doubt that tho article to wlkieh I am replying was not" manufactured for "home consumption," but is intended for "export" to Australia, where there is a No-Lioonso contest going on at the present, moment. At election, times it is difficult to overtake a mis-statement when, it gets a fair start. A few years ago a ease of slygrog sailing was reported from Invercargill, and eight cases of whisky Were involved. By the time tho news reached Christehurfih, the number of eases' had grownl to eighty, and it was quoted in tho North Island at 800, and when it finally reached Australia there were 8000 oases. That the statement was an obvious "whopper" did mot prevent it. being advertised in all the newspapers of New South Wales.