EXCESSIVE DRINKING IN ENGLAND.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2213, 21 April 1880, Page 2

EXCESSIVE DRINKING IN ENGLAND.

(From the Times.') Speaking on the occasion of the opening of a coifce tavern at Neath recently, Lord Abcrdarc said he thought that the amount spent in drink in the kingdom alone was very little short of £150,000,000 a year, and it was calculated that of (hat sum the working classes spent £100,000,000 a year. If this was spent in the education and clothing of the children, it would undoubtedly be a great blessing to the country. Eefcrring to the remedies suggested for intemperance, his Lordship said the collcc-tavcrn movement touched only one phase of the evil, and but one way' of meeting the diUlcnltyx One great step that would have to be taken was that of putting responsible persons in charge of the management of public-houses persons who would undertake the trust of what he called the temperance principles. The statistics of crime in this country showed that drunkcncss was sinking lower and lower in the social stratum. The poorer classes above the very lowest stratum were becoming more and more sober, and it was perfectly clear that the great mass of drunkenness existed in (he lower orders. He was afraid that it was not that class of people who would attend the coffee taverns. If they wanted to reach the lower stratum thcy r need not attempt to do so by absolutely cutting off their supply of liquor, but by allowing them to have a certain amount of reasonable indulgence without permitting them to run into excess. There was a country where, some years ago, the vice of drunkenness was twice as bad as in England, and a great deal worse than in Scotland Sweden. Drunkenness bad been very rapidly driving down the character of one of the very truest nations in Europe ; but a law was passed which enabled the local authorities to say how many licenses should be issued, and there has been an enormous reduction in tho drunkenness of that country. He believed it was not by having two public-houses where three had been before, but by having one public-house where live had been before, that any appreciable dilfereucc could bo made. The first town in Sweden that adopted the Gothenburg system was a town of 70,000 inhabitants and there the public-houses w T cre reduced from IG.j to 36. A company managed them, and managed them so as to obtain 6 per cent, on the outlay of capital. All the profits beyond 6 per cent went to diminish the rates. This was found to pay, and he thought that every year a largo sum of money was paid in this way —at least £IO,OOO —to the Treasury. Mr Chamberlain induced the Town Council and the Board of Guardians of Birmingham to raise sufficient money to purchase all the licenses in the town, and they proposed to reduce the 1800 that there existed to about 200. With thisobject in view. Mr Chamberlain brought a bill before the House of Commons, and it grieved him (the speaker) to the bottom of bis heart that that measure was not passed. Whether the scheme would have succeeded or not, it ought to have received a trial. He was responsible for an Apt which had had the effept of adding from 30 to 40 per pent, to the value pf public house licenses. Every clause n; tho Act was conceived in justice and fairness, and the result simply proved that no one individual could grapple with this question. In conclusion his Lord, ship repeated that the drinking trade of this country should be left to the local communities, and added that he could not concur with Sir Wilfrid Lawson in a measure which was calculated to effect total suppression.