An Instructive Report.

Evening Star, Issue 7332, 3 October 1887, Page 3

An Instructive Report.

In the progress report of the Intoxicating Drink Inquiry Commission, a question of very great importance is treated with singular ability and comprehensiveness. The report does not exhaust the subject, but, so far as it goes, it is penetrating, instructive, and suggestive. It is creditable in every way to its framers. The Commission was at the beginning thirteen strong, but an examination of the minutes shows that the work for the most part was done by less than half the number. At a late stage of the inquiry four members sent in their resignations ; but while the Commission still possessed nominally its full strength, the meet ings were very thinly attended. The Commission, with Mr Alexander Oliver as president, was appointed in February, 1886, and in the letter of instructions j which was received from the principal ' Under-Secretary, the Commissioners were requested to "make a diligent and fall inquiry into the causes of the excessive use of intoxicating drink by the people of this Colony, the deterioration it has produced in public morality, and the extent to which legislation has been effective or otherwise in repressing the vice of drunkenness and regulating the traffic in liquor throughout the Colouy." The Commissioners were further instructed to report the conclusions arrived at, and to make recommendations for further remedial or amended legislation. These instructions have been faithfully observed, and in the report now published we have at one and the same time information, conclusions, and recommendations. It is to be observed that the inquiries of the Commission have been confined to the metropolitan district. The Commissioners regret that their investigations could not be extended to the country districts, or at all events t> the principal cities and towns in the country ; and regret will also bo felt by the public, because in some respects the conditions of the drink traffic in town and country are dissimilar. But the limitation does not affect the general scope of the inquiry. The report, as we have it, is not strictly applicable to the whole Colony so far as hotel management, for example, is concerned; but, in the broader aspects of the question, that which applies to the town may be said to hold good as regards the country. It would be impossible to give in a brief article more than a general idea of a report which fills over sixty pages, and enters exhaustively into such questions as the consumption of liquor, the drink bills of the Australasian colonies and the Mother Country, the quality of the liquor consumed in New South Wales, the vice of drunkenness, the contributory causes, and the measures that should be adopted for its repression, the statistics of drinking, and the private bar abuse. But in addition to the report there is a large mass of evidence, together with numerous appendices, containing matter of great interest and value. The evidence has been collected from over one hundred witnesses, representing the police, officials connected with gaols and lunatic asylums, judges, magistrates, statisticians, ministers of religion, licensed victuallers, brewers, local optionists, analytical chemists, and artisans. The Commission, in fact, have jpushed their inquiries in every possible direction. The information thus obtained is not very gratifying ; but, at the same time, it cannot bo said that the condition of affairs as disclosed by the researches of the Commission is very muoh worse than it was believed to be. In some respects the information we obtain from the report is encouraging. For example, the consumption of intoxicating liquors, taking the decennium 1577-ISB6, has fallen off substantially. In connection with thi3 subject interesting tables of figures are given, comparing the consumption of liquors in this Colony with the consumption in the other Australian colonies and in the Mother Country. Our "drink bill" compares favorably with the drink bills of Victoria and Queenland, and, although we pay more for liquor than is paid in England, we consume a less quantity. This portion of tire report is specially interesting, because it disposes of the statement made publicly some little time ago that our drink bill was heavier than the English drink bill. But, although the consumption of intoxicating liquors has declined in this Colony during the last ten years, the arrests for drunkenness have not decreased, and measures for the cure of this great vice are proposed. The reason why the arrests have not fallen|off in proportion to the decrease in the consumption of liquor may be found, perhaps, in the more rigorous enforcement of the law ; but, whether drunkenness is as prevalent now as it used to be, there can be no question that it is a formidable and a destructive vice, and that strenuous efforts should be made to diminish it. The Commission would limit the sale of liquor by an extension of the localoption principle, and they firmly opposes the proposal whieh has been made to open the public-houses during a portion of Sunday. Opinion generally, we suppose, will be in favor of continuing the prohibition as to Sunday trading, but we doubt whether the local option suggestion of the Commission will meet with approval. For our own part, we entertain ve.-y grave doubts as to the value of restrictive measures of that kind. But we can go heartily and thoroughly with the Commission in the suggestions they makes for the reclamation of drunkards. It is the habitual drunkard rather than [the occasional offender that we have to deal with, and to fine the habitual drunkard or to send him to gaol for a few days does nothing towards the cure. The only treatment for the drunkard that promises success is confinement for substantial periods under suitable control; and, adopting this view, the Commission suggest that inebriate asylums should be established, to which the habitual drunkard may be sent. It is not denied' that the system would be expensive; but it is submitted, with good reason, that the outlay would be made up by the saving in gaol expenditure which would follow the; reclamation of the drunkards. One crying evil associated with the drink traffic in Sydney—the'sub-letting of private bars—the Commission denounce very strongly; and severely repressive measures are recommended. It is proposed that all up-' stairs bars be abolished, and that in no hotel should more than two bars be allowed downstairs. The abuse oalls, no doubt, for a sharp remedy, but it is questionable whether it is necessary to go so far as the Commission propose. Private bars in a respectable hotel will be respectably conducted, no matter what their numbe* may be; the evil consists in the sub-letting of the bars by unscrupulous landlords to women equally unscrupulous. It is pointed out by the Commission, however, that while • sub-letting is disallowed by the Act, it is almost impossible to prove a breach of tho law in this respect, and the abolition of the private bars is therefore regarded as the on'y remedy. There is another portion of the report to which great interest attaches—that which relates to the quality of the liquor consumed in the Colony. It'is pointed out that while in the opinion of the majority of witnesses examined there may be no deleterious foreign ingredients discoverable by the analyst in tho spirits commonly consumed, yet the cheap spirits offered by the retailers are very injurious to health, because of the presence of fusel oil. It has also been discovered that while colonial-brewed beer is seldom, if ever, adulterated, it yet contains, as revealed by recejjt analysis, fusel oil in injurious quantities, the result of fermentation at a high temperature. The Commission recommend stringent legislation with the object of keeping out of consumption all liquors containing fusel oil, and they observe that "if colonial beer, brewed at high temperature, is pernicious, it must be brewed either ?,t artificially lowered temperatures, 'as "we are given to understand/is done in many parts of the United States, or on the talle lauds." This raises a vjjry important qjiestiorij which, wi}l have to be carefully consiflorpd. Wi* u regard' to golofjjal ijeer,' we may call attention to the statement made by tjig Commission on offjcia{ authority, that the output amounts at the outside to 11,000,000 gallons per annum, which is about 3,000,000 gallons less than tho quantity estimated by the Colonial Treasurer when calculating the ; revenue likely to be derived, from the excise duty. This is a point of interest to , Mr Burns. Taking the report altogether, it is of great interest and, value.'" How" far it } will be possible to give effect to its juoom I mendations is quite another question.—' S. M. Herald,'