THE DRINK BILL OF NEW SOUTH WALES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 8581, 1 June 1891, Page 4

THE DRINK BILL OF NEW SOUTH WALES.

Tiir. Rev. F. B. Boyce, who, says th«- j The Rev. F. B. Boyce, who, says tha j Sydney Mail, with great persistency, keeps- - | the thirsty souls of New South' Wales "well > posted up as to what their liquor costi -thorn:' has made out the drink > bill for.las': year. According to his, reckoning it amounts to £4,900, _ Of, course there is ; something conjectural in these figures, be- : cause the retail price cannot bo very closely calculated from the customs and excise returns. Tho quantity of colonial beer consumed can be i uioro accurately gob at now than before tho beer duty was imposed ;hub :J j tho consumption of colonial wine is" not to be so easily determined. Speaking roughly «'! may say that very nearly half the money, w#* spent in spirits, and abonta quarter in colo- ( nial beer. The rest went in wine and imported beer. The average expenditure pet head of the population was £4 5s 8il« or £-*.yi.; \ Ss 4d for an average family of five persons. . In the United Kingdom ; last year the average was £3 13s per head, so that we , spend inoro freely in liquor than the good folks at home—a pretty good proof th&& ;• tho mass of our population ■is better on* Tho one*bomfort to,bo* derived 1 from Mr. Boyce's figures is that we do not spend quite so much as we did, and therefore we, have improved a little on iourselves. 1885 we ran the figures up to £5 173,8 a pej v head. We arc now therefore £1,12s per head either more prudent or . more poor than vre_ .; were then. But during the last eight 3'® srS -.1 , the people of this colony have spent close i upon £40,000,000 in intoxicating drinks— j sum not far short of ' tho whole of J ur national debt. : How much of this has been - contributed by the wage-earning classes oi - course it is hard to say, although we ra '?° ' ■: perhaps, put their share down at two-thir®* —perhaos even three-fourths; at any ra - I if, , during those eight years, they W - been teetol«dlers, and had put the mony - j so saved into co-operative industrial what a difference it would have »#«? ; ] in tho : independence of their P°, h( j and' how it would have' diminished risk of strikes! Suppose three ,ml ° j V-.-j out of the five, instead ,of being spen , j to onrich the publican and the spirit dc ;,. ;' chant, were invested in industries " , j the workmen's own control, in ten jw , j £30,000,000 would be so invested, and s ix differenoe that would make in the re . !; tions of capital and labour. In on •" i generation the whole status of this lelat ship might, bo revolutionised, A" . could bo done by one persistent «>««■ ; 'self-denial which a great mimyucrk already exercise, and which would " -jj -i. .. physically injurious except in a -/ , cases. It seems l wonderful to th.nk. .j, such a remedy is within such easy rea j our population, and that vet, rather^-,,| •adopt it, wo find men preaching the i P 3 tive necessity of a bbody revolution. ,'i