THE GOTHENBURG SYSTEM.

Grey River Argus, Volume XXXIX, Issue 6987, 12 February 1891, Page 2

THE GOTHENBURG SYSTEM.

■■■ ■• — ■—+ •' ■ i ... The Agent-Geueral jof ..Yictoria .haa. for? warded to the Premier of that colony a copy of a reporj; prepared by Her Majesty's Legation : in Stockholm on the working of the system. •* The report, which ia based oh returns from the i British Consulates in the country," writes Sir Graham Berry, "proves beyond all doubt that / under the operation of the system the consumption of spirits per head of the population has fallen from 28.90 to 16.95 litres, while the number of convictions for drunkenness proportionally to population and of cases ot delirium.tremens has also steadily diminished. A remarkable fact is mentioned in the course of the report ; that when in one day a number of public-houses in Stockholm were reduced from 193 to 88, 'no protest was made on the part of the lower classes, who thus BuddeDly found 106 of their customary resorts closed against them.' " This, certainly, is a good record, and at this distance Bounds well for. the success of the system. A phamphlet which accompanies Sir Graham Berry's communication explain was that the object aimed at the founders of the Gothenburg system by " the decrease of the widespread poverty of the working classes, in so far as it was caused by the abuse of Intoxicating liquors. The means, by which it was proposed to being about this result were the radical reform of the manner in which the public house traffic was conducted, and <the artificial heightening of the price of spirituous liquors to be secured by the suspension of the principle of competition. With these things in view, the authorities agreed to transfer the public-hpuae licenses existing in Gothenburg to a company who consented to undertake the business on the understanding that neither the shareholders nor the persons engaged as managers should derive any profits from the sales beyond a fixed percentage on the oapital invested. This prinoipleof 'no profit to the sellers' is the keystone of the system wherever it has been established in Sweden." £ >■ ' ' ■-.- - 1