THE DRINK BELL

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 383, 9 May 1908, Page 4

THE DRINK BELL

The Dominion’s Consumption of Alcohol. Figures for 1907. The Rev. Edward Walker, who for some years past has annually calculated and published the Dominion’s drink bill, has just got out the figures for last year. In issuing * hem, with those ot the previous year for comparison, he says they reveal a condition of things to aflord laughter lor those who can he jubilant over the increase of human degradation and wreckage. In spite of the restraint exercised by a widespread temperance educational propaganda, and the increasing number who take a keen interest in national temperance reform and personal total abstinence, the figures show an increased consumption, not merely in proportion to increase of population, but per head of population also, to the ominous extent of'qs 8d per head. “ It means,” he says, ‘‘that prospeious limes increase the means of indulgence to the victims of the drink habit, and also that drinking has become, as has been before pointed out, more widespread among young men, and that a certain proportion oi them are becoming increasingly victims of the habit.” He contends that, in view ot the teachings of modern science upon alcohol, the licensing of its beverage sale involves the State in grave responsibility for the consequences ; that in licensing districts a majority of the voters should have power to exclude it; that instruction in the nature and effecls of alcohol should be obligatory in all public schools; and that for physical, economic, and moral reasons it is time the municipal governing bodies of the Dominion followed the examples of so many borough councils in the Un ted Kingdom, and public authorities on the Continent of Europe, in posting up educative and warning placards respecting the character and physical effects of alcoholic liquors. Mr Walker says it is necessary to repeat that the drink bill is calculated Irom the Customs and Excise returns, upon the basis of the whole being purchased by the gallon, at per gallon rates, and that as much of the liquor is purchased over the bar by the glass at a much higher rate than at per gallon, besides being often increased by dilution, adulteration, etc., to say nothing of increase by illicit manufacture from essences, excise frauds, and the like, the actual total cost to the consumers must be enormously greater than the figures indicate. The figures show an increase of considerably over a quarter of a million for the past year in the expenditure by consumers, namely, £307,258, the actual increased expenditure in the single year being probably not less than half a million, a fact that should be sufficiently appalling to legislators, public teachers, civic authorities and all who take an interest in the economic and' social public welfare. The figures for last year bring the total estimated drink expenditure in New Zealand to date, on the Customs and excise basis indicated, to £116,955,310, the real cost of the liquor to the consumers and the country, direct and indirect, being almost fabulous. The following are the figures:— JANUARY 1 to DECEMBER 31 (in. elusive), 1906. Cost per Cost to Head of Gallons. Consumers. Population. £ £ s. d.

Spirits at £2 per gallon, 692,324; increase 57,498 1,384.648 1 9 3'i Wines at £2 per gallon, n 8,107; increase, 4947 236,214 050 Imported beer at 6s per gallon, 251,610; increase, 33,310 75,483 o x 7 Colonial beer at 4s per gallon, 8,318,880; increase, 522,640 1,663,776 I 15 2 a ( , £3,360,121 (£3 XI l a , ■’Estimated popu'ation, 944,490; increase, 29,430. JANUARY 1 to DECEMBER 31 (inelusive), 1907. Spirits at £2 per gallon, 740,931; increase, 48,607 1,481,862 1 10 7J Wines at £2 per gallon, 146,034; increase, 27,927 292,068 o 6 oj Imported beer at 6s per gallon, 279,070; increase, 27,460 83,721 0 1 85Colonial beer at 4s per gallon, 9,048,640 increase 729,760 1,809,728 1 17 5 T £3-667,379 i£31510 Increase ... £'807,258 £0 48} population, 967,017 ; increase 22,527. The population is calculalcd by Inking the mean of the four quarterly estimates issued by the Reg-istrar-General and adding Maoris (47,73 1 as per last census), but not the population (12,340) ot the Cook and other islands in the Pacific annexed to the colony in 1901. (1 he slight apparent excess in these totals is accounted for by unexpressed fractions of a farthing in the amounts standing over them.