CORRESPONDENCE THE NEW ZEALAND DRINK BILL.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2281, 25 July 1881, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE

THE NEW ZEALAND DRINK BILL.

To the Editor of the Globe, Sib —The Customs and Excise returns, giving the consumption of intoxicating liquors for 1880, have just been published ; and now that tho excitement occasioned by the discussion on the Licensing Bill is passing away, it may not bo unacceptable to your readers to have placed before them a statement, showing the amount of money expended in New Zealand upon intoxicating liquors during the financial year of 1880. The following table gives particulars of the various kinds of alcoholic drinks consumed, together with tho amount of money expended thereon : Spirits ... 557,051 gals (a! 40s d 11,114,102 Wine 152,002 „ @ 40a 304,004 English Beer 450,990 ~ @ 6a 135,297 Colonial do 2,428,925 „ @ 6s 728,677 Do do 2,428,925 „ @ 2s £42.892 .£2,524,972 The coat to the consumer of the imported liquors is put down at the above prices in order to be under, rather than over, the correct figures. As a matter of fact, wines and spirits retailed out at 6d per glass or “ nobbier,” causes a far greater expenditure of money than I have debited them with. English beer is dispensed at 6i per glass ; a gallon gives 16 half-pint glasses ; the cost to the consumer is consequently 8s per gallon. Seeing, however, that it is occasionally sold by tho gallon, or by the dozen bottles, and not always retailed at per glass, I have estimated the whole amount at tho very moderate figure of 6s per gallon. With regard to the expenditure on colonial beer, it will be necessary, perhaps, to explain the method I have adopted of arriving at an approximation of the sum spent in its purchase by the consumer. Taking the different qualities of beer sold by the brewers, the average cost to tho publican (previous to the tax of 3d per gallon being levied) was a fraction under Is 6d per gallon. About equal quantities of this is retailed at 3d and 6d per glass ; the average retail price is therefore 44d per glass. Allowing two glasses to tho pint (which I am informed is very good measure) the number contained in a gallon will be sixteen ; these sold at tho average price of 44d per glass, brings the publican in 6s per gallon—a very modest profit of 300 per cent! Taking for granted that my calculation is a correct one, and that the quantity of beer thus disposed of is equal to one-half the total amount made, there yet remains the other half to be accounted for. It will bo observed, on referring to the figures representing the Drink Bill, that an equal quantity of colonial beer is estimated at 2s and 6s per gallon respectively. The explanation of this is to be found in the fact that there exists in the colony a large number of people who obtain their beer in a semi-wholesale manner, either from the publican or the brewer, and who pay on an average something like 2s per gallon. In estimating the consumption of beer by the semi-wholesale purchasers at onehalf the whole amount, I am considerably within the exact figure, the proportion being one-third at 2s to two-thirds at 6s.

There is one unaccountable peculiarity in connection with this colonial beer return that requires an explanation, and I hope that the solution of the apparent difficulty may not embarrass the brewerß of New Zealand. The following statement will explain the nature of the anomalous feature I refer to : Last year, according to a return laid before the House of Representatives, the quantity of beer made in the colony amounted to 186,096 barrels, equal to 6,699,456 gallons. This year, according to a statement made in the House by the Hon. T. Dick, in moving the second reading of the Licensing Bill, the quantity on which the beer tax was paid (including tho average for tho first two months of the year, during which period the tax was not in force) was 4,857,850—a difference of 1,841,606 gallons. This represents a falling-off in the amount expended on colonial beer for the year 1880, of £368,321. Added to tho total as given above, this would bring the drink bill up to £2,938,392. My reason, however, for referring to this large discrepancy in the two returns, is not that I may be able to debit the colony with a heavier bill than tho one I have made out, but rather that I might have an opportunity of putting the following question : —Are the existing arrangements for the collection of the beer tax as perfect as they should be, and do they preoludo the possibility of evasion on the part of the brewers ?

The return laid before the House of Representatives on the 16th July, 1880, giving the number of breweries, the quantity of malt, hops, and sugar used in brewing beer, together with the number of barrels produced, would lead anyone acquainted with the manufacture of beer to expect a much larger product for the material employed. According to - the return in question, it appears that 504,144 bushels of malt and 2,481,588 pounds of sugar were used in brewing 186,096 barrels of beer. Allowing 26 pounds of sugar to the bushel, and adding the two together, we get a total of 599,590 bushels ; taking the British Excise standard of two bushels of malt and sugar combined, as brewing one barrel of beer, the number of barrels should have been 299,795, instead of 186,096, and the number of gallons 10,792,620, instead of 6,699,456. This year, as before staled, the brewers have only paid the tax on 4,857,850 gallons, leaving an immense difference to be accounted for. Assuming that the figures 4,857,850 are correct, and that the Excise officers have done their duty in preventing any beer from passing into consumption that has not been taxed, there exists a considerable disparity between the consumption of beer in Victoria and New Zealand. The average for the former is 16 gallons, and for the latter a fraction over 9 gallons per head of the population. There is one pleasing foature, however, in connection with the consumption of imported liquors, and that is tho fact that all the returns indioate a largo diminution, as the following comparative table will show :

1870. 1880. Spirits ... 618,112 557,051 Wino ... 198,674 152,002 Beer ... 492,124 450,990

1,308,910 1,160,043 Being a decrease of 148,867 gallons. Regarded as a whole, the Srir.k Bill exhibits a large falling off in the consumption of intoxicating liquors in 1880 as compared with 1879, the reduction amounting to £561,606.

In conclusion, the fact of a young colony like New Zoaland wasting over two millions and a half of money, a sum equal to £5 per head of the whole population—meu, women and children —and that, toe, in spite of the great commercial depression we have been recently passing through, calls for tho most serious consideration at tho hands of our legislators, and indicates the necessity that exists for lessening the legalised temptations which abound on all sides, of making people drunk by Act of Parliament. Yours, &c, O. M. Gbay. July 21st 1880.