PRICE AND STRENGTH

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 57, 5 September 1945, Page 5

PRICE AND STRENGTH

"N.Z.'S NATIONAL DRINK"

New Zealanders were primarily a beer-drinking people and for many years New Zealand made beer that was notoriously heavy, but lighter ales had come on to the market in the last 10 or 15 years and had gained in popularity, said Mr. J. H. Luxford, S.M., in evidence before the Royal Commission on Licensing yesterday.

Then, as a war measure, a maximum strength was fixed and it would seem that the public had become accustomed to and appreciated the beer now being sold, although there were complaints about its price. It should be the aim of eyery brewer to keep his product at minimum strength and he should be encouraged to do so by a sliding scale of beer duty.

"I am not, of course, competent to prepare a suggested scale/ said Mr. Luxford. "If, however, there is common agreement on what should be the proper minimum strength of beer, the scale of duty should ris? so quickly and substantially for beer brewed in excess of the minimum strength that the duty, will be reflected in the retail price. "I regard the keeping of the alcoholic content of beer as low as possible, having regard to the brewing of the most wholesome and palatable product, as one of the most effective methods of controlling New Zealand's national drink."