WHO DRINKS IT ALL?

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 2026, 21 August 1880, Page 4

WHO DRINKS IT ALL?

TO THE BDITOB OF THB FBBSS.

Slß,—ln my last letter to you under the above heading, I took occasion to place before your readers a statement showing the quantity of beer brewed in the colony during the year 1879, and the amount of money expended thereon by the consumers. I also expressed an opinion that the drink bill for New Zealand could not be one penny less than three million pounds sterling. Since then I have obtained the Parliamentary returns of all the spirits, wines, and English beers, on which duty was paid during the past twelve months. The«e returns I have carefully compiled into three separate tables, and on examination it will be s%en that the sum total exceeds my previous anticipation by several thousands of pounds. Table I. £ Invoice value of spirits, wines, and beers 447,952 Duty received on same ... ... 447,474 £895,426 100 per cent, profit, divided between the wholesale merchant and publican ... 895,426 1,790,852 Add colonial beer 1,256,147 £3,046,999 Table 11. 492,124 gals. English beer, retailed at 8g 196,849 618,112 gals, spirits, retailed at 40s ... 1,236,224 198,674 gals, wines, retailed at 40s 397,358 3,349,728 gals, colonial beer, retailed at 6s 1,004,918 3,349,728 gals, colonial beer, sold in kegs at Is 6d 251,229 £3,086,578 Under table 3,1 have calculated the different varieties of drink, at the price at which ';hey are retailed by the publican, and the total arrived at is £3.806,862. The profit of 100 per cent., estimated in table 1, is considerably within the mark. Colonial beer, as shown in my last letter, brings the publican in a profit of 300 per cent., therefore I maintain I am justified in asserting that the moderate computation of the percentage, added to the gross cost of the imported article, is not a fraction too much. Your correspondent William Smith, writing on the 16th inst., finds fault with the figures in my letter on colonial beer, and warns the public against accepting them as correct. In reply, I might inform him that I have not the least fear of my oaloulations being regarded as exaggerations. My information relative to quantities and prices is perfectly reliable ; and when I state the fact that an expert has pronounced them trustworthy, I can safely publish the result without any fear of successful contradiction. In conclusion—The fact of a young colony like this wasting over three millions of money during a year of commercial depression, calls for the most serious consideration at the hands of our legislators ; and indicates that the time has now arrived when some measure ought to be passed, which shall have for its objeot not only the restricting, but the prohibition of that traffic, which has most appriately been termed " the gigantic crime of crimes." Yours, &e. O. M. Gbay.