RATHER TOO MUCH.

Evening Post, Volume XLI, Issue 103, 2 May 1891, Page 1 (Supplement)

RATHER TOO MUCH.

The Economist, referring to the recent conference of brewers in London, holds that "it is impossible for joint-stock brewing companies to plead that they have invested their money in the purchase of licensed houses without knowing that the claim for compensation, if the licence were withdrawn, was, to say the least of it, a disputed claim. They have bought in the teeth of the decison of the highest court that has yet been appealed to, to the effect that the publican's licence is a licence for one year only, and that, if withdrawn, there is no legal claim for compensation. More than this, they are continuing to buy licensed properties, although they know that Parliament has refused to entertain a proposal that compensation should be paid, and has devoted to other uses the funds which the Government sought to apply to that purpose They themselves admit, moreover, that whatever may have been the case previously during the time they have been working, they have seen licence after licence withdrawn without any misconduct on the part of the holder, and without any compensation having been paid. And in the face of all this, for them to^come forward and contend that their investments were made, and continue to be made, in tho belief that there is a legal property in a licence which cannot be taken away without compensation, except for misconduct, is rather too much."

SWIMMING AND NO DRINK. Davis Dalton, the professional swimmer, at Battersea, a few months ago, brought to a close his task of swimming for twelve hours on his baok without leaving the water or i using his arms. He goyered oyer 13 miles in the allotted time, during which he only took small portions of bovril. In addressing about 1000 people at the close of the swim, Mr. Dalton explained the secret of his powers of endurance. He insisted on the necessity for abstinence from alcohol by those who wished to accomplish auy such feat. Mr. Dalton says he intends to swim the Channel sometime in the new year, and will do so under the eume condition of abstinence from all alcoholic drinks.

FORTY GALLONS A YEAR FOR MA.N, WOMAN, AND CHILD. Hear->drinking in Germany seems £o bo proceeding at a strauge rate of progr.o&£ion, so that however weak in alcohol such beer may be, the quantity consumed evidences a morbid ap L etite, and must be attended with

morbid .Its. What are we to think p j.o following newspaper state/; , v Beer-driiiK ijj in Berlin and Munich. — According to recently-published statistics, the Berliners drank 2,092,471 hectolitres of beer in 1889, aud the Munichers 2,G80,712. The population of Berlin numbered about 1,600,000 last year, that of Munich about 250,000. As the hectolitre is equal to 22 English Imperial gallons the beer consumption of Berlin and Munich can be easily calculated, and gives an annual consumption to each Berliner — man, woman, and child — of nearly 40 gallons of beer, and to each Municher of 236 gallons. Such swilling, even if not attended with intoxication, is as disgusting as '"he vice of gluttony ; it may indeed be called " fluid gluttony," or drinking to excess, whatever the effect upon the nervous system.