CONTROL OF THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC-QUEBEC

Dominion, Volume 16, Issue 171, 7 April 1923, Page 3

CONTROL OF THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC-QUEBEC

Sir, —'The article in your issue of tho 6th instant, giving Mr. J. B- MacEwan’s favourable impressions of the State control of the liquor traffic experiment in Quebec, prompts me to give your readers some further information. Mr. Mac Ewan says that "spirits could be obtained in the province, but under such strict regulations that they were rapidly going out of use as a beverage.” This iw not correct. The regulations are that only one bottle can be purchased at a time, but there is no restriction as to how many times a day a person may puichase ono bottle. The Government is the sole importer and vendor of wines and spirits, and in December, 1921, the sales were nine times what they were in May, 1921, when the Government took it over. Can this increase in sales be considered an improvement, in the habits' of the people? The Quebec Liquor Commission, in making its report, tabs the public that great progress has been made in dealing with boot-leg-ging, an admission that State control is not apparently more acceptable than prohibition. A writer in the Montreal “Witness,” dated January 24 last, pointed out that the city had jusi, had to raise £75,900 for federated charities, whilst Montreal’s liquor bill was between two and three million pounds pei annum. Air. Taschereau, the Premier, himself stated that arrests for drunkenness in Montreal in 1922 wore 363 per month. This works out at six per thousand of the population, or practically four times more per thousand than the arrests in the no-license districts of New Zealand.

A dispatch from the Government medical officers of Quebec dated September 10. 1921, dealing with the ravages of alcohol and certain diseases in which it is a factor, stated that there ware 4150 cases of venereal disease reported, and of the total numher 20 per cent, were contracted while the victims were under the influence ot alcohol.

The Premier of Quebec, in inaugurating this system—upon which the people have never voted —publicly announced his intention of making wine cheap and developing the wine trade with France. It is to be expected, therefore, that every effort will be made by tho Government to put the most favourable construction on their experiment, just as the British Government did in regard to Carlisle. Possibly, if Mr. Mac Ewan had had more opportunity ttt get beneath the surface he would not have felt so favourably impressed with State control, as he appears to be at present—l am, etc., J. M ALTON MURRAY, Assistant Secretary N.Z. Alliance.