The Colonial Drink Bill

Feilding Star, Volume XII, Issue 3, 21 June 1890, Page 3

The Colonial Drink Bill

Mr G. M. Gray, of Ohristchurch, has published ia the Temperance Herald his annual calculations regarding the colonial drink bill. He says: — Another New Zealand drink bill, and another cheering reduction. The thing is becoming pleasantly monotonous. For seven years in succession the drink bill of this colony has shown a continued diminution. In 1382 the total expenditure on intoxicating liquors in New Zealand amounted to £2,658,092; for 1889 the total £1.---996,286; showing a substantial difference of-£661,806, or equal to an average of £1 per head of the present population. The total for the year previous was £2,040,901, representing an average •expenditure of £3 2s !o£d per head of th© population. This year's drink bill shows a decrease of £44,615 ; the average per head being £3 0s 4d This latter amount, when compared with the averages of Victoria and New South Wales, stands out in pleasing contrast to the expenditure in the two principle Australian colonies. The latest figures to hand show the averages to be :—Victoria, £5 15s 5d 1888 ; Wew South Wales, £4 8s 2d for 1889 ; New Zealand, £3 0s 4d for 1889. Last year the average for the United Kingdom stood at £3 10s per bead, an increase over the previous year of 3s 4d per head. The total amount saved in this during the past five years, when compared with the expenditure for the five years commencing with 1880, aggregates a snm nearly equal to our present annual expenditure, it being as follows :—IBBO-84, £12,---222,206; 1885-89, L 10,517,600; decrease, £t,704,606. The drink bill for 1889 has beaten all previous records for over twenty years. The increase of population during the year ending 31st December, 1889, is put down by the. Registrar-General at 12,899. This made up of excess of births over deaths, 12,685, and excess of arrivals over departures, 214. The decrease in the amount of our colonial drink bill is shown to be £44,615. Having dropped .below a "two million" drink bill, let us hope that the end of the current year will see us below a £3 average^