DRINK AND THE BRITISH WORKMAN.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1064, 6 February 1883, Page 3

DRINK AND THE BRITISH WORKMAN.

Mr William Hoyle, the well-known statist, at the close of a letter to the Times on this subject, says ;— ‘ Hot it bo borne in mind that during the past ten years the population of the United Kingdom have spent very nearly £1,364,000,000 upon drinking ; twice the amount of the National Debt ; and when it is remembered that this expenditure represents about an equal sum of indirect loss in the burdens and mischiefs which result from drinking, or a total of direct or indirect cost and loss of over £2,700,000, it will show the terrible character of the burden which has been weighing down the nation’s industries during the last ten years. No wonder, therefore, that there should be poverty, degradation, and misery. How could it be otherwise ? There are also other reforms which the country needs, but I will venture to say without a reform in the habits of our populat ion, including both rich and poor, the uplifting ot the masses is an impossibility ; but with this reform secured, poverty, degradation, and misery would soon be a thing of history, and along with it there would be freedom from the crime, vice and moral pollution which are everywhere associated with intemperance.’