MR ADAMS’S DRINK BILL

New Zealand Times, Volume XL, Issue 9095, 14 July 1915, Page 4

MR ADAMS’S DRINK BILL

To the Editor "N-Z. Times.”

Sir’,—lt would not be fait to your readers to occupy much space upon this subject. Only- one or two points need be emphasised. Mr Adams has relied upon some return compiled by the Customs Department, and I took the figures from the New Zealand Year Book. He does not disprove the accuracy of the Year Book figures, but observes: “The differences, if any, between them are probably clerical errors.” Thus with charity to himself he covereth a multitude of Sins 1 Is it not reasonable that the return—a hurried compilation for Mr Adams—is wrong, and the Year Book—a studied and revised work—is correct? After an elaborate argument to justify his fixing the price of spirits and wines at the same price to the consumer (which no one would do who knows anything about the cost of these commodities), Mr Adams shows how small the profits are in the' liquor business, and concludes with this , observation, which is the severest criticism upon himself and his work: “It ia impossible to do more than estimate the actual retail cost of liquor to the consumer.’’ Yet Mr Adams, while admitting the impossibility of doing more than estimating, builds up an extraordinary hypothesis upon an estimate, with spirits and wines at the same price, and has the assurance to assert that the drink bill for New Zealand according t 6 this hypothesis of his own making ia positively so much, per head of the population! Surely, sir, that is the limit of ‘ assurance. The geese in Mr Adams’s little problem actually laid so many eggs, but Mr Adams would like us to believe, applying iU point to the drink bill ho prepared, "that it is impossible to do more than estimate the number of eggs the geese did lay.’’ Not much reliance can be put upon a computation that is a mere estimate. ' and less upon a calculation the basis of which is a gross exaggeration made in confessed ignorance of values.

But Mr Adams goes further. He wants the readers of the “New Zealand Times" to believe that his estimated drink hill is a sound proposition, for he shows that on his estimate there was an increased consumption of 370,000 gallons in 1914 than in 1913, and there was a decline in the drink bills of these years of one and one-fifth penny 1 But Mr Adams now explains that “it is impossible to do more than estimate the actual Cost of liquor to the consumer.” Why did Mr Adams not say in the first place that his figures were “only estimates and nothing more”? By a brief comparison are Mr Adams’s estimates "made ridiculous absurdities. We in New Zealand are said to consume 10 1-5 gallons of liquor per head of the population, and the people in Grew Britain 281 gallons per head. THe cost to the people'at Home is .£3 12s sd; yet Mr Adams would like your read'ers to believe that nearly one-third the quantity in New Zealand costs more, namely £3' 13s 10d per head. What a maker of drink bills Mr Adams is to be sure! Taking the cost of liquor at Home to approximate that in England, plris 25 per cent, profit and carriage, the New Zealander, spends, in liquor about 30s per aunum, which is probably an estimate nearer the mark than Mr Adams's estimate.—l am, etc., MODERATE.