A THIRSTY NATION.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10214, 17 April 1911, Page 4

A THIRSTY NATION.

The Commonwealth of Australia occupies- an unenviable position as a consumer of intoxicating liquors. At an inter-State temperance conference

in Melbourne recently, Mr S. Manger said that last year Australia spent £7,112,000 on ale and beer, £5,740,000 on spirits, and £702,000 on wine. The drink bill on the per capita basis was £2,230,000 greater than that of Canada, while in Victoria alone it was £BOO,OOO greater. Australia spent only £2,425,497 on primary education last year, as against £7,000,000 on beer, while it spent over £5,000,000 more on spirits than •on technical education. Beer and whisky return enormous profits to their manufacturers. The speaker went on to say that employees of the boot trade last year earned £2OO each for their employers; woollen trade employees £165; but every employee in the breweries of Australia earned £750 for his employer, and every employee in the distillery trade £B2O for his employer. In any five years during the last quarter of a century more money was spent in drink in Australia than was saved in the savings bank during the past 75 years.