PROSPERITY AND BEER. Do they go Together?

Free Lance, Volume II, Issue 76, 14 December 1901, Page 8

PROSPERITY AND BEER. Do they go Together ?

LAST year the people of NewZealand spent 8s lid per head more in intoxicants than they did m 1896 This means that each person has consumed about seventeen more drinks during the year than he did formerly, or about as much beer as would go into a thimble every day. Therefore, there arises in wrath those who fear that the country is going to what the illustrious Mr Mantalmi used to call "the demnition bow-wows." An ardent temperance advocate, who has been busy investigating these drink statistics, recognises that the people have taken that extra thimbleful of alcoholic refreshment because they are more prosperous, and because the Army has taken a few South African towns • • • The people should be thankful to the gentleman for his kindness in letting them down so lightly. The average man who drinks alcoholic beverage does not, as a rule, expect the prohibitionist to give him any latitude, even though the occasion may be a Mafeking Day or a Boer funeral. The fact of the matter is, that the people are glad they are prosperous, and, as the average person m 1901 earns a good deal more than he did in 1896, he is certainly not more drunken, or more degraded on his diurnal extra thimbleful of alcoholic than he was before. • • • It may be justly argued that the greater part of the £481,270, representing the increase of money spent in stimulants necessary to demonstrate the joy of the people on various occasions recently has, for the most part, been spent m expensive beverages for swell banquets, and does not in the least prove the contention that the people have become drunken by even that daily thimbleful It is probable that prosperity diminishes rather than increases the drinking habits of a people. Drunkenness is most common amongst those who have the least money to pander to their craving The people will have a chance to prove the truth of the contention that prosperity increases drunkenness • • • May we prophesy that the four hundred odd thousand pounds will be decreased next year, not because the people will be less prosperous, but because they require less artificial exhilaration to create an enthusiasm that a Britisher is prone to assist with beer or other alcoholic stimulants ? If the pessimists are right who foresee much trouble, little money, and hard times, be sure the drink bill will go up another few hundred thousand. Hard times give the people time to drink. • * • In any case, we see nothing in these figures to alarm the true friends of temperance. Drinking habits are not growing among the people. The very opposite is the case If the drink bill has increased of late, that does not justify anyone in assuming less temperance, or a growing appetite for drink. There is nothing easier than jumping to hasty conclusions.