ALCOHOLOGY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 81, 26 September 1911, Page 7

ALCOHOLOGY.

goxscmptiox meaxs production*. (Published by Arrangement). Our heading means that the consumption of alcoholic liquor means the production of drunkenness-. There has been a great deal said of late about the increase of the drink bill in New Zealand in spite (liquor men insinuate that it is in consequence) of the increased nolicense areas. This matter will bear examination. We also know that the polices returns show an increase of drunkenness from 10,057 in 1900 to 11,718 in 11)10—that is an increase of nearly 10 per cent on the former year. The first general view is plain: that the increased drink produces the increased drunkenness. It is so in the individual: the more liquor the drinkers consume when they come to the place where the liquor is sold, the more drunken they will become. It is just CAUSE AXD EFFECT.

It is something gained when people begin to see, or rather to see more plainly, that drunkenness comes from moderate drinking, and that a drunkard is merely a moderate drinker who could not carry on —to use a commercial phrase--and has had to turn bankrupt and ought to ''file his schedule" as a prohibited person. But to return to our figures, it is instructive to notice where the increases have been, that is in what' parts of our Dominion. First as to.consumption: Where is it? In the •license - districts, and not in the''nolicense districts. From a special return prepared for the Minister of Customs wo learn much. This return shows the aggregate amount of duty paid on spirits and beer at the several ports of Xew Zealand for the two three-year periods, 1004-5-0 and 1907-8-0. Every province shows an increase, but the increase is the smallest in those provinces where the most no-license, areas are to be found. Take Dunedin, Oamaru and Invercargill. These ports serve the parts of the country where there are the most no-license areas, and they show an increase of only £11,057 on the liquor duty paid. The increase for Auckland alone was £50,788, and for Wellington £77,553. When the increases in population are taken into 'account we find that the duty paid in Otago and Southland decreased-by 2s 7d per head, while in the other parts of the country there was an increase of 3s 10% d per, head. This, then, is evident: XO-LICEXSE MEANS LESS LIQUOR.

Last session of Parliament had two returns prepared to show the amount of liquor taken into the no-license areas from which it is seen that, after making a very liberal allowance for illicit introduction of liquor into those areas, there was only about one-fourth the liquor consumed per liwid in no-license areas as compared with license areas. The figures are: Drink bill for all Xew Zealand, £3,803,438; for the no-license areas, with allowances as above, £129,883; for the license areas, £3,073,082; or, to put it roughly, the "dry" areas consumed less than £1 per head, the ••'wet'' areas over £4 per head, while the average for Xew Zealand was £3 I4s Id per head. All were calculated on the same wholesale rates. Secondly, where is the increased drunkenness? Whichever way one looks at it, it is plain that the drunkenness is wholly in license districts and provinces. Take the police returns just laid before Parliament. In Dunedin they have twice over reduced ihe number of liquor licenses; then, too, the Dunedin police district takes in the most no-license districts, extending northwards to, and including Oamaru. Xow for the figures: Dunedin and suburbs show a decrease of 38 drunks, while Auckland has an increase of 829, Wellington an increase of 220, and Christchurch 17. Furthermore, if we take the Dunedin police district only it shows a decrease of 75 cases of drunkenness. The Ashlmrton Guardian .sums it up very well: "There.,cap be ,iio gainsaying the legitimate deductions from these facts- - tha.fc.the closing of public-houses causes a marked diminution in the consumption of intoxicants in ( the.districts wlnire noHe'ensft prevails! And if. at the same time, we find that drinking is on the increase in those areas in which the open bar is in evidence, there is good deal of force, in .the terse comment: ;THE : RF.MEDY IS MOKE XO-I.K F.NSK.'-'