THE GOTHENBURG SYSTEM.

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 10450, 14 September 1899, Page 3

THE GOTHENBURG SYSTEM.

Mr Joseph Malms addressed another meeting in the Choral Hall last night on "The Gothenburg System." There was a moderate attendance, and the Mayor of Lyttelton (Mr Radcliffe) was in the chair. - The lecturer began by saying that no other countries but Norway and Sweden had. adopted t"he Gothenburg system. A mighty change had been wrought in Sweden in the last century in the direction of soberness. In 1829 46 litres, or 40 quarts per head per annum of spirits, was drunk. The demoralising effect of this was such that in 1835 a dry had gone up for reform, and : the domestic stills were suppressed, and the consumption dropped to 22 litres. Still the consumption was very heavy, and in 1885 "local option by direct vote" was introduced, relegating to the rural consumers, local option. About 2000 consumers out of 2400 in tLe. first year suppressed all spirit licenses. Since then 200 more consumers.| had taken similar action. Thus rural" Sweden, comprising 4,000,000 out of a total population of 5,000,000, was almost totally, sober. Urban Sweden, on the other hand, consisting of 100 towns, would not veto the ' traffic. The right to sell was put up to. auction, and the buyer had to announce what | amount he would sell, and pay sale tax oh j it. The right was knocked down to the individual or oompany which would undertake to sell most. Under the incentive to sell more liquor, dirty dodges were resorted ' to. This was before tibe Gothenburg system was invented. Thus in the cities the con- j sumption stood ihigh, acd in Gcitihembuirg" was 26 litres per head. A company, headed by a lsHrge brewing firm, waa formed, which induced the Corporation to abolish spirit licenses on condition tliat they had 6 per cent, profit, and gave the authorities all surplus profits. This (the Gotihemburg system) sought to make the drinkiiig-houses extiing-faouses, aird to stop the liking for spirits by cultivating a taste for malt liquors. The s*tle of ardent liquor had dropped 5 per cent., but 500 beer shops •had been opened under the system, and the consumption of intoxicating liquor was the same. A United "States return, recently pfe : pared, proved that in the United States the spirit consumption had decreased still more without any such system, but, Ike Gotihemburg. tie safe of malt liquor bed increased: The reported reduction of 50 per cent, in spirit consumption took no note of the increased consumption of "substituted alcoholic Jiqiior." After referring ironicalTy to the evidence given by the promoter of i!hie Gothenburg syui'em feefcre "tie House of Commons, the speaker pointed out that tire *a!ble suibmiitted on behalf of the system was .misleading. inasmiiCih. as,,it said that in 1860 "the police >in Gctheanburg ceased to iiavo a share of the fines inflicted for drunkenness whereas it was a&t u»til the year ia which the system was started that the police ceased to have iiro-thirds of such fines, and tlw consequent slackening of the pol'ce activity fcurgely accounted for the reduced, convictions wrongly credited to the Gothenburg system. At presen!; t:he convict'Lorns in Gothenburg wore more by five time* as many in proportion as Liverpool, six times as many as Cardiff, and eiriit times as many as Aberdeen. Further evidence showed the triviality of *&© Gctneaburg reforms. The figures oroved that 8000 men had got drunk at the "model nouses, and only the same number at 500 beer shops. The authorities would not attack the system because they derived their revenue from it. After describing the evils attached to the system, and the corruption and crookedness it gave rise to, Mr Malms touched on State control. Therte was not a State in the world but severely and strongly controlled the traffic, and put publicans under all sorts of disabilities, and yet they said it was not controlled enough. State ownershio was another thing which, if tested by Sweden, meant the grossest of corruption. It was harmful to give up the pmver they possessed to deal wi'tb the traffic and hand it over to any Government. Now that the trade was in danger and the people were nbout to put it down, were they goinsr to let the Government nick it up and shield it? He thought not. He concluded by saving that with the exception of Cook Island, he bad never heard of any country attempting I State control. The idea of a Government of a country 'becoming its liquor eaflera wo-s repugnant. No teetotaller could ever stand for Parliament if such a thing came about. It was not the business of a Government, and would be a gross and unpardonable offence to hundreds of thousands. He concluded by saving tbat New Zealand had shown an example to the world in msny wa.vs. and implorinsf bis hearers to see that she did not take this false step. ;The meeting concluded with votes of thanks to the speaker and the chair.