PAWNED FOR GIN.

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 149, 24 June 1911, Page 17

PAWNED FOR GIN.

"When it is remembered that nearly half the revenue of Southern Nigeria is derived directly from the sale of drink, it is not too much to say that it is a disgrace to the iSnipue." So said Dr. Donaldson, of Magdalene College, Cambridge, who presided on Monday, May 8, over the annual meeting of the Native itaces and the Liquor Traffic United Committee at Grosvenor House. The statement made by Bishop Tugwell that in many courts the fines were paid in gin was amply justified. Archdeacon Melville Jones said that the introduction of gin was bringing about a great alteration in the manners of the people, and there was little doubt that drunkenness was on the increase. This was hardly surprising when they heard that the estimated imports of spirits into the colony during 1910 reached the enormous figure of 4,700,000 gallons, by far the largest on record. The drink expenditure at marriage and funeral ceremonies had grown greatly, with the result that children were pawned to the gin traders as security for debts incurred.

The Eev. James Pickett moved, and Professor Sims Woodhead seconded, a resolution that the meeting viewed with great concern the marked increase in the importation of spirits into Southern Nigeria during the past year, and appealed to the Government to take immediate steps to check the traffic both, in Southern Nigeria and tne otter West African Colonies.,