DRINK IN SWITZERLAND.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1216, 19 June 1885, Page 3

DRINK IN SWITZERLAND.

An inquiry instituted by the Swiss National Council shows that the annual consumption of brandy is greater in Switzerland than in any other European country, with the exception of the Netherlands and Denmark, being 27 000,000 litres for 2,500,000 inhabitants. The result is a deterioration of the race, as shown in the fact that the number of men unlit for military service is increasing from year to year. Besides this it has been thoroughly pioved that out of every hundred insane persons 40 have been reduced to this state bv the abuse of spirituous liquors ; that 45 per cent of the criminal class are addicted to drink ; that 259 deaths on an average take place every year in consequence of d ink, and that to the same cause may be attributed the majority of the 600 suicides that annually occur in the country. Brandy has become an integral portion of the food nf the peasant and operative classes since the rise in the cost of food. These figures speak for themselves, and in order to remedy the evil the Federal Council proposes to give the cantons a stricer control over the publicans’ trade ; to suppress the ohmgeld, or duties levied on wines entering certain cantons, in order to reduce the price of the article ; to raise the Customs duty on alcohol ; and to impose a doty on spirits manufactured within the Confederation, This project has been adopted by 103 to <6 votes, but the States Council will have to give i s verdict, and should it be favourable, the bill will have to be submitted to a vote of the whole people, inasmuch as it amends the whole Constitution.