BEER AND FREE-TRADE

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 170, 11 May 1871, Page 5

BEER AND FREE-TRADE

.A. correspondent of thie " 23"elson C^ - lonist." in a letter headed "Across the Jiar," makes the following remarks : — Dr. B^ntley says, "He who drinks beer thinks beer •" and precious thin his thoughts would sometimes be if time were true. A bystander at the bar quotes the story of the labourer who one warm day, at noon, got a jug of home-brewed from the old lady for whom he was working. He drank and said nothing ; the donor being surprised at the absence of the usual praise giv a to her liquor, remarked, "Nothing but malt and hops there." "And water," dryly observed the drinker. "Oh I forgot the water," s lid tho old lady. " No, I'm blessed if you did," was the rejoinder. Had this circumstance occurred in this colony the speaker might have added "sug.ir." Upon this an old farmer, with a Uiump on the counter, excldimed, "Hang it, I've been trying to sell my barley to the brewers ami they won't biry ifc because they use nearly one half sugar." Then he fires up, and with louder voico says, "Those brewers get a duty of £2 a hogshead put on foreign made beer in order to encourage them and keep the money of the colony as much in ifc as possible, and yet they brew what they like, and send money out of the country to buy sugar, and some people say chemicals. There ought to be a law passed compelling brewers to use only m.ilt and hops in making beer." " And water," said Boniface smiling. " Yei, of course," replied the farmer ; " but what if the. barley farmers here send to Melbourne? They have to meet a duty of 3d or 4d a bushel before it can be placed in the market, while Melbourne can and does >.end Lurley, wheat, and llour, into the liutrkes duty free. I doubt the justice of that, either to the colony or to the farmers." " Things are all wrong here," says an old Yorkshireman, ■' and farmers have no chance. The brewers, as you say, get protection, and they send the money out of the country for sugar, which should not be employed in making beer. In the old country, farmers brew their own beer, and rare good stingo it is. I once heard a friend say there were three kinds of beer, 'strong table,' 'common table,' and ' lamen-table,'" Another here stiikes iv with the anecdote about the beer shop sign in Harrogate,- which announced 'Be\r sold here." " ff c spells correctly," says T. H., "if he means his own Bruin." There were other jokes in accordance with the " bar practice," but theso I would omit, and would conclude by giving a few figures on the beer question, which should make those who know what the country can pro. luce open their eyes to the fact th.it we are sending a great deal of money out of the country which should and could be kept in it. Take only the matter of beer. In the year 1869 beer was imported to the value of £70.000 ; malfc, consisting of over 100,000 bushels, was imported, the value bein<r £55.000 ; and yet, strange to say, while thus importing malt, the colony that year exported 90,000 bushels of barley. Hoj s to the value of £31,000 were imported in the year 1869, and yet we all know that a large quantity of splendid hops co.uld be grown in the province sufficient to supply not only New Zealand, but the Australian colonies, and the home market too. The system of sending out our material instead of manufacturing it, and sending out barley and buying malt, may, perhaps, be accounted for on the same principle as the curious butter transaction which was received ! r Mr. Fitzherbert, who, when off tlukit.ka-, learned that the out-going ster.m'r, bound for Victoria, had ou board 200 casks of New Zealand butt{ r fcr Melbourne, while the steamer newly. arrived had 200 casks of Vietoium butter for. New Zealaud ! This ia called Free Trade, and free it is," and it may be easy to those -who don't lose. by it, but it is a very costly kind of business. . ' I have told something of what L. heard and thought of " at; the barj" j and, I hope it may do -some good outside the bar. 'Hiere is a good deal of truth in what t!m o ld Yorkshireomn said. Things are wrong in tbie country) ' Finish your beer ! . * '