FOOD AND DRINK.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 10515, 25 July 1910, Page 2

FOOD AND DRINK.

ANNUAL CONSUMPTION BY EACH INDIVIDUAL. By Telegraph. (From Our Own Correspondent.) Wellington, July 23. The Customs Department annually prepare a series of tables showing the consumption per head of articles in commerce. By this process interesting enm- ' parisons can be made showing how the popularity of articles in every day use fluctuates. Last year seems to be notable in this respect for an all-round diminution in the consumption of intoxicants and tobacco, while an improved demand for tea and sugar was indicated contemporaneous with the reduction of the duty in the case of tea and its abolition so far as sugar-is concerned. Calculating upon the basis of the adult population the average consumption of spirits by each individual last year was 2.26 gallons, paying duty of £1 16s 2d per head. During the previous year the consumption was 2.45 gallons. The bill for wine duty ran into Is ljd per head as compared with Is 3id in the previous year, when 10,408 . gallons' more passed through the Customs than during last year. Imported ale is drunk to an extent which returns BJ-d per head to the revenue. This was a penny less than in 1908, when the consumption was two-fifths of a, gallon per head; the bigger demand for New Zealand-brewed ale results in a return of 3s 3Jd per head in excise duty on 131 gallons. The reduced consumption last year showed itself in a reduction of beer duty equalling IJd per head of the male and female population over the age of fifteen.

The tobacco consumption averages 7.171bs and a return of £1 4s IOJd in duty for every adult male in the country. Its lessened importation last year meant a decline of 6jd in the revenue per adult. The cigar, snuff, and cigarettes duty hill went hack last year by 9d per head.

There is no duty on tea, but the importations are carefully noted and ran into 7.081bs per head of the population over the age of fifteen; the importations in the previous year equalled 6.411bs on the same basis.

Coffee, cocoa, and chicory are declining in popular taste. About ten years ago the average yearly consumption exceeded three-quarters of' a pound per head. Last year's figures show that it was a little less than half a pound. A factor in the decline may be the continued imposition of a duty which equals 1-Jd per annum for every one in the Dominion.

Sugar was imported to the extent of 114.71bs per head last year, an increase of nearly lllbs. This was a record for any year. Customs revenue" equal to £2 4s 5d per annum for every resident in the country was collected in 1889; last year it equalled £2 lis 7-Jd, showing an increase of 44 per cent.