LIQUOR IN NO-LICENSE AREA

Greymouth Evening Star, 7 October 1910, Page 3

LIQUOR IN NO-LICENSE AREA

COMMENT ON DR FINDLAY'S FIGURES. COMPARISONS AS TO CONSUMPTION. 'BY TELEGRAPH—PEK PRESS ABSOCIA i ! WELLINGTON, October 6. The figures relating to the consumption of liquor in no-license areas, as officially registered, which were given by Dr Findlay in the Legislative Council yesterday," have caused a. good deal of comment. No-license advocates in Parliament have been busy and this afternoon Mr T. E. Taylor made a statement on the subject to a reporter. He mentioned that the total population of 12 nolicense areas in New Zealand was 144,284. The liquor consumed in them, according to Dr Findlay's figures, amounted to 29,3,314 gallons annually, or an average consumption of two gallons per head. According to the latest sus returns, he said, the population of the rest of New Zealand outside the twelve no-license areas was 855,716. The consumption per head (vide the official figures) was 12 gallons. It would therefore be seen that the difference of consumption of liquor in licensed and no-licensed areas was about ten gallons per head. "These figures," added Mr Taylor, "will give a very good idea, why the liquor interests are so bitterly opposed to the extension of no-license. They furnish also a striking refutation of the repeated statement that more liquor is consumed in no-license districts than in districts under' license. Suppose that twice the quantity of liquor was consumed in no-license areas that is officially registered, then the contrasts would simply be 4} gallons as against 12 gallons. In some no-license arenas not in contact with license districts, such as, for instance, Cluthu, the consumption amounts to only about one gallon per capita. Asked about the matter this afternoon, the Rev. J. Dawson, Secretary of the New Zealand Alliance, stated that the No-license Executive was going exhaustively into the matter, and would, tarnish full comparative figures shortly.