LICENSING AND TEMPERANCE IN SCANDINAVIA.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVI, Issue 43099, 1 June 1907, Page 1

LICENSING AND TEMPERANCE IN SCANDINAVIA.

THE LATEST A'A By BobertjE. Baity. (Continued frqtnlast is§ue.) . If • optpnpLpjp: not suffice* if ppihmg increased reward,! or the penalties of the- lay, .will induce the liquor ipanufacturers toprevent the continence of- ~ those gigantic eyilj,which, according ,to h£r, Pratt, ayd “ theutrade ” journals, wbioh| applaud his book, are so easily preventible, let them forthwith begin a crusade, in which :tKey wilt have the sympathy oifevery abstainer bf conscience, brewers to brewjonly these light; beers, or to make the incidence of taxation such! that it will pay a brewer handsomely to brew f the beers of small* alcoholio* strength inpreferenceto heavy and maddeningwhich, the nation npw drinks to its sorrow. Enjoying, the. ./ absolute monopoly-winch, and hpying f .undpr, thp . almost, iniversal “tied-house ” system, to an extent Unknown to any i )ther country in the world, the Dower to impose the consumpion of itheyv ihoose upoii the : people, the big )rewers couldi effect—if; the >anacea lies, in light beer—-an lmiost millennial 1 t on. *!'[

It should.be remembered that; in Denmark beer which contains not more them,per ceiiti (weight) of alcohol pays no duty to the Government, while a duty of nine krohqri p^r.barrel of 140 litresds- imposed- on« beer containing more than that percent- ; age of alcohol, though no beer having more than 6 per cent, of alcohol may be brewed in Den- ; mark. A combined effort to constrain .the Chancellor p£ the Ex - chequer*' not indeed to decrease the liquor taxes—Which, as. i compared with American and .Colonial syetem,s, bring in some twelve to' fourteen millions of money less than they ought to -lo—but to so modify them th. it sho brewer shall have a much larger inducement than he has it present to brew light instead of heavy beers, would accotnlif li something in the direction •i s;-i>ri.C;Vy. Lei this course be ; : iii iy co mm ended to those, •a lit. favour olr Pratt’s' views. A direful consideration of the grouti.db advanced: by Mr Pratt ;u .itippuri of liis main propaganda robs' them .of much of their strength. The history of IVmperunee effort in Scandinavia seems to furnish an entirely different lesson than the one Mr Pratt attempts to deduce. So long as the Temperance societies went steadily forward with a plain, logical, and consistent policy of total abstinence and permissive local Prohibition by popular vote, their progress was phenomenally successful, but, as soon as they began to tamper with these bases of the movement, to relax their, conditions of membership and dally with schemes of “ company controlled ” drink sale. - retrogression and failure set in. A Tenv perance society can instantly increase its membership by the admission of those who take alcoholic drinks in quantities, however limited, but, if this increase materially robs the society of tha enthusiasm and devotion which have been its main strength, such increase is too dearly purchased. One of the essential conditions of a successful popular appeal is' that it should be simple apd straight/ so that the wayfaring pian,, Whether a fodlot' not,- may not .err-therein.

' \To be ContimiccL)