INVERCARGILL'S PROSPERITY.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue LXVIII, 3 December 1914, Page 7

INVERCARGILL'S PROSPERITY.

(Published by Arrangement.)

During the last threo years of NoLicsnse, building psrmits totalling! £320,000 have bean issued, and in the i last year an electric tram service was \ opened at a cast of £80,0C0. An i article published recently by the ! Trade stated that Invercargill " had ! j progressed in population at the rate of i I only 2.65 per cent, per annum, while j j similar sized towns,. Wanganui and ' j limaru, under license, were advancing lat the rate of 6.76 and 9.62 per cent ! per annum. Why does the Trade cut j the comparison snort at 1911? Because the last three years would not have suited the Trade's case. During the last three years of No-Licensa in-Inver-cargm, the selected towns advanced at the rate of 2.57 per cent, per annum (Wanganui) and 4.2 par cent, per annum (Timaru), while fnvercargill's progress was at the rate of 4.73 par cent. A great deal has been made of the amount paid in beer duty at Invercargill, but it must be remembered: (1) That the excise duty paid on beer' at Invercargiii is no criterion whatever : of the quantity oi Jißcr consumed in.: Invcrcargsll, as the Invercargill cus- j toms is the only one through which ' duty is paid for the beer brewed in the breweries of the fira electorates of InvercargilJ, Awarua, Mataura. Wallace, and Wakatipu. , (2) No customs officer knows or can make any return as to the quantity of beer consumed in any place. All he can do is to return jhe quantity of beer brewed in each" brewery upon which he collects duty, and the quantity imported _or brought through the port over which he has jurisdiction. , (3) A cJiStlnotiOrt must be made between the invercargill electorate, which is No-License, and the Inyercargill police district, within the- bounds of winch there are 97 licensed houses. i (4) The excise duty paid on beer in Invercargill for the last year of license in Invercargill is no criterion of the quantity consumed in Invercargill un- j der license,, as at that time there ; \yere 16 open bars and 16 wholesale licenses in Invercargiß, and of these at least 12 bars were tied to Dunedin and Lawrence brewers, whose average yearly sale to these bars was 250 hogs.heads a month, which can be proved from the railway consignment books and the shipping companies' manifests. This works out at 282,1!28 gallons a year, the duty on which was paid into the Dunedin customs, although the beer itself was consumed in Invercargill bars under License. Therefore to the amount of beer consumed in Invercargill in the last year under License must be added the beer supplied to the twelve tied houses, making a total ofat least 397,766 gallons. The only correct basis upon which any statement j about the consumption of liquor in NoLicense districts can be made is from i the Magistrate's Court, returns, which sire duly filed by brewers, wholesale licensees and hotel-keepers, of the quantity sent in. The latest return of these was furnished to Parliament at the Rev. L. M. Isitt's request, as at ;31 st December, 1813, and gave the fol- ! lowing quantities of consumption of liquor of all kinds-. Ashburton ... 18,246 gallons Invercargill ... 95,967 „ Masterton ... 45,468 ~ Oamavu ... 27,757 „ j The amount of consumption in all NoLicsnss electorates works out at 8 gallons psr head. The consumption of the Dominion was 11,310,918 gallons, and the consumption per head for the License electorates was as follows: License electorates, 12.2 gallons per head. Ns-Licensa electorates 1.8 gallons per head. % Decrease in favour of No-Licen,33 electorates, 10.4 gallons per head.