THE NATION’S BEER.

Motueka Star, Volume IV, Issue 145, 9 January 1903, Page 4

THE NATION’S BEER.

The London Weekly Despatch of November 16th says . —The great—for is it not a national ?—-question of the poor man’s beer is once more with us. The hop yield this year was not so satisfactory as th« average, and the question naturally arises, Where will the hops come from to brew the beer when the'home supply does not meet the demand ? From investigations which a “Dispatch” representative has made, it appears that the Germans, as ever, are keenly alert when anything to do with trade is concerned. For several years past they have been sending hops to Great Britain, and now the Teutonic hop is a recognised article upon the home market. Their prices are lower than ours, but then it is also stated that the quality is inferior. Hops, to-day are fetching any price from <£s to 1C per cwt; these are the extreme figures, and are higher—double in fact— than the price of last year. This latter circumstance it is that has given the German his chance. He can comebpon your market pay his extra expenses, and then sell at half a sovereign or even fifteen shillings or a sovereign per cwt cheaper than our growers. But the German consignments do not, it is stated, always agree with the sample. The British grower is under restrictions which his German rival does not have to put up with. For whereas the former has to mark his “pockets” with his name, parish, and countiy,, and so on, the German article gets through without practically any bother at all. However, so far as the consigning of hops not in accordance with sample is concerned, one is glad to know that legal action will probably’' be taken in the j* atter. As for malt, there appears to be no fear of either the quality or price of beer being affected by that. The supply is plentiful and the quality of the best. One feature in malt produce was pointed out to oui repi esentative, which was that some remarkably fine malt is now being produced in Smyrna. Indeed our infoimant was somewhat sanguine as to the merits of th's particular class of malt over any other in the market. All these matters, bower, are no doubt very interesting, but what the man in the street wants to know, to say' nothing about the man on the public side of the counter, is, How does this affect the “poor man’s beer” ? And not the poor • man only, but others in the middle and upper classes too ; for beer is by no means the exclusive luxury of the poorer classes. Upon this point a gentleman who is connected with one of the biggest breweries in the East End was particularly emphatic. “There is no danger,” said he, “of either beer going up in price or down in quality. The beer drinker will get just as good quality, and of course the same quantity, as previously for his money', hop famine or no hop famine.”