New Zealand Times. THURSDAY, AUGUST 27, 1874.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4192, 27 August 1874, Page 2

New Zealand Times. THURSDAY, AUGUST 27, 1874.

The short debate that took place in the House of Representatives on Tuesday, resulting in the Excise Duties Bill being passed through all its stages, renders the report of the Select Committee on the excise duties, containing the evidence taken, of some interest. This report was brought up on the 4th inst., but has only recently been placed in the hands of hon. members. The Committee consisted of one member of the Upper Chamber and eleven of the Lower ; and Messrs. Seed, Heaps, Cawkwell, and Robinson were put under examination before it. Some utterly irreconcilable statements were made by the witnesses, which perhaps may be partly accounted for by the direct interest Messrs. Cawkwell and Robinson had in the settlement of the question at issue. The Committee had, doubtless, a difficult task to accomplish, and if the report brought up had been but approximately satisfactory we could scarcely have felt surprised. It, however, completely cuts away the ground from the feet of those newspapers in the Colony that literally boiled over with virtuous indignation and holy wrath at the course, involving as they said bad faith to the distillers, proposed by the Government. The Committee found that the proposed increase of tho excise duties was not inconsistent with good faith to those who had embarked in the business of distilling ; that it was inexpedient to altogether stop distillation of spirits in the Colony ; and that as there was a loss to the revenue from the distillation under present arrangements, the Government should make conditions with the parties now engaged in distilling to cease doing so, upon equitable terms, and with duo consideration of their claims. This puts the matter before the public in a clear light. The parties had no claims according to the Government proposals, but as the revenue was suffering, and would suffer by their continuing to distil, tho better way would be for them to have permission to exhaust their present stocks, and then retire from business on compensation. This conclusion is so framed as to meet the views of all parties. The Government had a perfect right to raise the excise duties, without admitting that the distillers had any claim to compensation; but, if the business should be arbitrarily suspended at the close of a certain period of time, the distillers would show a clear case of wrong done to them. , Mr. Seed stated in his evidence that tho annual loss to the revenue would be £23,000 per annum, during the next two or throe years, if the distillers continued to carry on their business. This would arise, ef course, from tho differential duty on the home produced material, and that on tho "imported article. There is the article of whisky, for, instance. Tho difference between the price of the colonial article and that imported is about 4». per gallon. Upon this, the revenue loses £12,000 per annum. The distillers say that they did not receive this sum in tho shape of profit, so wo are justified in asking what became of it 1 It wont into the hands of the general dealers and the publicans, the public, of course, not deriving any benefit. We altogether fail to boo how anyone could regard such a state of things without admitting that change was required. The Colony was paying £25,000 per annum to keep up two distilleries, and the money went into the pockets of the" wholesale and retail dealers. The distillers, it would appear, wont into

the business in consequence of the temptation offered by the 60th clause of the Act of 1868. From various circumstances, improper plant and appliances, failure to readily obtain desirable materials, and the unjust prejudice as they seem to have thought it against what they admit to have been their raw and unmatured spirits, they had only just got into fair form for carrying on business in a profit-, able manner, when the Government proposed to gradually raise the excise duties to nearer the level of the Customs duties. The Government, we .presume, were partly impelled to this step from the intention made known by the distillers that they were intending to increase their operations 100 per cent. In their petition they set forth that they intended to use 70,000 bushels of barley during the ensuing year. This would produce spirits upon which there would be a loss of £42,000 to the revenue. But besides barley, they use molasses and sugar to a very largo extent. They claimed to have very considerably reduced illicit distillation, as they sold the same article as that produced by the illicit distillers at a very low rate; and they argued that thus much the revenue benefited by the sura received from them. Mr. Seed thought very little weight was to be attached to this statement. He believed illicit distillation might have been reduced, but not to the extent people supposed ; and that it was still being carried on. In 1874 the consumption of spirits was three gallons per head, and recently it had fallen to one and four-fifths. This, Mr. Seed believed, was owing to the decrease of the drinking habits of the people. Surely this fact ought to be satisfactory to the friends of temperance in the Colony. There are one or two considerations that will commend themselves to reflective persons from a perusal of this report and evidence. We always attached very little importance to the claim of the distillers for compensation on account of the excise duties being raised, because everyone knows that duties on spirits are constantly being altered in all countries without compensation being asked or given. But the Legislature of 1868, clearly enough, attempted to create an industry that was bad in itself, costly to the Colony, mischievous in results, and based upon erroneous principles. _ The distillers admit that large quantities of raw and unmatured spirits have been placed in the market. These raw and unmatured spirits have introduced into the systems and frames of many thousands of persons what is nothing short of alcoholic poison. The Inspector of Distilleries told the Committee that he had never heard it stated that this spirit contained a large quantity of fusel oil. It is in the knowledge of everyone -acquainted with the subject that the very best West India rum, Scotch whisky, and French cognac contain fusel oil in large quantities until this has been killed by age. Here, the Inspector admitted, the public have no guarantee that the spirit sold has been kept sufficient time to render it wholesome when placed in the market. It may be that the liquor would be as good, if allowed to mature, as that imported, but then it has not been allowed to mature, and it has therefore contained fusel oil, which is deadly poison. This poison has been sold to the public at a loss to the revenue of many thousands of .pounds per annum, in order to please the protective genius of the Parliament of 1868. The Secretary of Customs, we observe, has some very decided notions on this subject. Ho “ did not think it advisable to pay more for an article produced in the Colony if you could buy it cheaper elsewhere.” Mr. Oawkwell, on the contrary, would seem to have some exceedingly crude and benighted ideas on this branch of the subject. Colville’s whisky was, said he, worth 6s. 6d. to 7s. in bond, and as this money was sent out of the country, it represented a loss to the country. If this nonsense means anything, it means that the five millions worth of imports we had to pay for in 1872 represented a dead loss to the Colony of chat amount of money. Mr. Cawkwell may be a high authority on matters of political economy, but to our thinking the distillery which he established was the cause of a much greater loss to the Colony than all the importers, although some of these gentlemen might have committed errors of judgment. The fact is that the establishment of the distilleries was a mistake—one of the character that is always committed when an attempt is-made to coddle and bolster up an industry by Act of Parliament. The country has had to pay heavily for the error committed ; but there is no reason why the way of transgressors of the laws of political economy should not be as hard as that of offenders of any other genus.