SUGAR AND BEER

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23882, 26 February 1943, Page 4

SUGAR AND BEER

♦ MINISTER’S STATEMENT CHALLENGED

The Minister of Customs (the Hon. A. H. Nordmeyer) was criticised at the Methodist Conference yesterday by the Rev. R. Dudley for the figures which he supplied recently about the saving in sugar by rationing and the reduction in the alcoholic strength of beer.

“I deplore some of the subtle and misleading statements that we have been receiving from Ministers of the Crown of late,” said Mr Dudley. In a statement published on February 20, the Minister said that, from May to December last, sugar used in breweries decreased by 62 per cent., compared with the May-December period in the previous year. Contrary to popular belief, said Mr Nordmeyer, the consumption of sugar for brewing represented slightly more than 1 per cent, of the total quantity of sugar used in the Dominion for all purposes. If the use of sugar were completely prohibited for brewing purposes, he added, and the quantity saved diverted to household uses, the increase would amount to an additional IJlb a person for the whole year, or less than £oz a week.

In spite of what the Minister had said, Mr Dudley claimed, the figures over the whole 12 months did not substantiate his calculations.

Mr Dudley said that the production of beer in New Zealand had reached the highest point in history, namely 20,287,927 gallons, and expenditure a head on liquor in the Dominion in 1942 was £6 6s lid, a record for the country.

Conference approved the following recommendation:—“ Conference appreciates the restrictions already placed on the use of sugar in the brewing industry, but the staggering fact remains that sugar consumption for the manufacture of alcoholic liquor in the Dominion increased from nearly 25,000 cwt in 1935 to more than 51,000 cwt in 1941-42. In view of the severe curtailment suffered by many industries and by the public generally, and in view of the grave possibilities facing the nation, the conference feels that sugar, grain, and other essential commodities should be consumed and used towards the maintenance of the life and health of the people.”