MELBOURNE'S NEW DRINK

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 26, 31 January 1923, Page 9

MELBOURNE'S NEW DRINK

Melbourne police axe feeling'some concern at the unrestricted sale of methylated spirit to persons of the vagrant type, who drink large quantities of the spirit in preference to ordinary liquor. The police say that methylated spirit drinking has assumed alarming proportions in the slum areas •of the city in, the last few months, and that a large proportion .of the habitual _ drunkards who are locked up are victims of the depraved habit. ■ On a night last week three plain clothes constables saw a group of five men and women sitting in the gardens at Victoria Parade, East Melbourne, drinking from a billvcan, which was handed around, On investigation, the constables found that "a' party" was in progress, and that those present were drinking methylated spirits, whioh had been mixed with water from a tap close by. The men were in a dazed condition, and the women appeared to be stupid with cheap liquor.

Constables on duty in the city watchhouse say that it is not an uncommon occurrence for bottles of methylated spirit to be found in possession of persons locked up for drunkenness. The victims are found by the police stretched out in the parks and gardens about the city in a comatose condition, and are often thought to be dead. The explanation for- the growing prevalence of the evil offered by the police is that methylated spirits is much cheaper than liquor. Once the taste for methylated! spirit is acquired, the degenerate can find satisfaction in nothing else.