The Feilding Star, Oroua & Kiwitea Counties Gazette. Published Daily. WEDNESDAY, MAY 22, 1895. OUR DRINK BILL.

Feilding Star, Volume XVI, Issue 273, 22 May 1895, Page 2

The Feilding Star, Oroua & Kiwitea Counties Gazette. Published Daily. WEDNESDAY, MAY 22, 1895. OUR DRINK BILL.

on intoxicants in New Zealand for tbe y-ears mentioned .* — Total. Per head.

For the purposes ol comparison Mr . | Gray has given the following list of < the annual expenditure on intoxicating : liquor per head of the population in the United Kingdom and this and other colonies : — _ '

For the year ending iviarcu oi, IS'Jo, tbe /ailing off in tbis colony in the quantity ot liquor -'cleared for consumption," together with the colonhil beer upon which excise Iras been paid, --mounted to 209,033 gallon^ representing a decrease in the expenditure for the twelve months of £102,847. The tutal quantity of lTquor included under these two heads last year was b,5-2T. VGI gallons, a-ainst 5.737,804 gallons in the previous year. Willi regard to the causes that have led to the decrease in the amount spent on dnuk in this colony opinions will no doubt differ widel'v. J-ome people will assert that the general depression in tradr through Diit the country is the chief cau^r Others will be of opinion that the spread of temperance principles has had more to do in the matter. Mr Gray himsolf holds that the truth will be found in a con.binatiou of the two causes. When people lack purchasing power, the consumption must ot necessity become less. In this connection the Lyttelton Times of Monday last said : Fifteen years ago the London Times expressed the opinion that " the ups and downs of our drinking expenditure simply represented the ups and downs of our prosperity, employment, and wages." Admitting this to be generally correct, no one who has resided in New Zealand for any length of time will deny that a gieat though gradual change has taken place during the past fifteen years in the drinking customs of the j eople of the colony. The more extreme temperance lefoimcrs may not have accomplished all they could have desired, but they have good reasons to Thankfully remember yet How much worse it might have been. Many reformers who are not " extreme," and many persons who do not profess to be reformers at all, will share this feeling of thankfulness.

.«. A very interesting* compilation bas been made by Mr C. M. 'Jray, which proves tbat the " Drink Bill " of New Zealand is steadily decreasing; year I by year, nnd in order to show the | exact position we quote the followingj table /showing the totals and the t- mounts per bead of the expenditure

£ £ s. d. c 1579 ... 2,497,985 ... 6 10 9 1884 ... 2,394,176 ... 4 5 0 ( 1889 ... 1,996,286 ... 3 0 4 I 1893 ... 2,184,317 ... 3 1 2 t 1894 ... 2,081,470 ... 2 17 2

Queenslaud ... £4 17 0 per bead. United Kingdom... 312 3 „ New South Wales 3 » 8 „ Victoria ;! 4 0 „ New Zealand ... 217 o „