LICENSING AND TEMPERANCE IN SCANDINAVIA.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVI, Issue 43096, 23 May 1907, Page 1

LICENSING AND TEMPERANCE IN SCANDINAVIA.

THE LATEST PANACEA.

By Robert E. Batty. v (Continued from last issue.) By the desire of municipal monopolists to add to the profits they already? secure' from- the native brandy traffic, those which might also be obtainabe from a control of the supply of beer, the whole tendency is to form a huge Municipal Liquor Trust, which/ while'; professing to maintain the purely philanthropic purposes with which the system originally started, is much more concerned to-day in securing the right to handle the profits. At present 5 the indes pendant sale of bebr stands in the way of complete monopoly. So the “ company ” leaders raise their ory that the drunkenness which prevails, is due not to the consumption of ardent spirits,

but to the imbibing of what are mostly light beers, and they have evidently inade iip their minds not' to rest content until

they have got the beer traffic also under their control.” < Mr Pratt’s final conclusions as to the Gothenburg system* include the following : “ That, except in regard to early closing (which, however, seems to have little lor no effect on the total consumption), the system,- of control is in no way superior to the very strict supervision exercised by brewing companies over their “tenanted” or “ managed ” houses in England, while 'the bar-rooms themselves, however superior to previously existing public-houses in Sweden and Norway, are not even equal to the average types of publichouse property in England. “ That, whilst the system was originally started with the be t of motives, it has developed mainly into an attempt to secure the profits. of the business : for State or loGal purposes, so as to

effect a direct saving to the pockets of members of the community. ’ , “ That to this end while there is much talk about restrictions, good care is taken (especially in Sweden) that the business is worked on thoroughly business lifies.

“ That, owing to the acuteuej-s of the scramble for tjie profits, the system has had to be ro organised in each couutry, so as to spread the distribution over a larger area, and give the towns less direct interest in the financial success of the enterprise ” So long as Mr Pratt occupies himself with, the provision of hard facts, demonstrating the futility and peril of looking to modifications of the Gothenburg system as affording a solution of the drink problem, he is on safe ground, hut, as soon as he leavesthe bedrock of actual experience and begins to theorise, he goes woefully astray. The “ Licensed Trade News ” has just reviewed the volume in most eulogistic terms, declaring that “ this admirable work/ . . should he in the hands of everyone connected with the licensed trade.” The greater portion of the work establishes a strong case for the prohibition of the sale of spirits, but it may be safely concluded that, had Mr Pratt being true to logic, and made a recommendation to that end, the “ Licenced Trade News ’'far from booming, would have placed the book on their Index Expurgatorius. Mr Pratt’s facts also constitute a strong case for compelling brewers to brew only beers of a very light gravity, but here again he fails, to accept the conclusion which be has made inevitable. ;

. be Contijujd.)