DRINKING IN SCOTLAND

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 49, 20 October 1931, Page 5

DRINKING IN SCOTLAND

LAW OBSERVANCE ANP ERU" CATION HELP TO PROMOTE TEMPERANCE. LICENSING BGARD'S REPORT. j LONDON, Scotland is becoming more sober. This is the view of the Royal Commission on Licensing (Scotland), the: members" of which, in' majority and minority reports recently issued, refer to the improvement in the habits of the people. The majority of the commission, which included the chairman, Lord Mackay, and Lord Fprteviot, state; that 'all classes of opinion agree that, in general, sobriety has increased, that InstancesVof public ' drunkenness' have b'ecome f ewer, that excess is restrained by a "sober"' opinion, "ahd i that 44 a younger generation is.grow"ing up to which, as a whole, aiiy resort 'to alcoholic excess' a§ a necessary or usual practice is almost totaily unknown." Con^ributory Factors. The commission considers. that the following' conditions Have contributed to the result : 1. A radical change in the mental and moral outlook on insobriety in practically all classes, based in a large degree on a better understanding of the laws of health and on a general desire to conform to those laws; 2. The eriormously increased' provision 'for the youhg in outdoor pursuits arid gariiesj and parti'cularly the f acilities for easy access by riiotor-car and otherwise to the 'beauties of the countryside; 3. Better education and iiiiproved methods of brihging the aHvaiit'ages of temperance and sobriety' hottie to tbe community-; 4. Iiriprovements introduced by the operation of the judicial provisions of the licensing code, which are attributable, both to the way in which these were framed by Parliament and to the faithful administrPtion accorded them by the common sense of the licensing courts of' the country; 5. Improved conditions in the housing of the " people ; 6. The great increase in the cost of excisable liquor, due largely to the necessities of taxation. 44Excessive drinking, in the sense made familiar to a previous generation by siglits and sounds in the streets of our cities, especiajly on Saturdays and public holidays," the committee states, has been greatly curtailed. The minority report, signed by the two women commissioners — the Hon. Mrs. Forrester-Paton and Mrs. Agnes Hardie — and by Sir Robert Stewart and Mr. Peter Chalmers, merely places on record "that the improvement in habits of sobriety has "been marlced. There have been various contribnt'ing factors, recreation, outdoor sports, better social conditions, atfcention to public efficiency, restriction of drinking f acilities, the high price of liquor, and last, the processes ox education, including the work of the societies connected with the temj>erance movement which is now ehtering upon its centenary, and to which the country is under a deep debt of gratitude."