THE BRITISH DRINK BILL.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13544, 17 March 1906, Page 7

THE BRITISH DRINK BILL.

A few days ago we published a cable message which suggests that the drinking habits of the British people are undergoing a distinct change for the tetter. Dp Dawson Burns, who, as the result of his study of the available Item-os, annually compiles the " national drink bill," lias estimated that the amount expended by the people of Great Britain upon alcoholic liquor has decreased in the past six years by the renmrkablo total of £21,759,286. Moreover, tins calculation takes 110 accountDf the increase of population during the years tinder review. 'When that element is taken into consideration the reduction i? estimated to bo equal to as much as £'!)!!,S-14,55-1. These are striking figures, and, if the shrinkage is not to be attributed to tlio cause to which the great brewing companies have been disposed to ascribe a decline in the sale of their products—to the diminished spending power of the wage-earner,—it can only be regarded with lively satisfaction. The view taken by "the, trade" is not endorsed by responsible officials in the country. Mr Austen Chamberlain, placed under the necessity in his Budget speech last year of explaining the decline in the liquor revenue, quoted the report of an experienced inland revenue supervisor that "it is the general opinion that there is a wave of sobriety passing over the country," and that it was his own conviction that " the revenue from beer and spirits lias reached high-water mark, and is falling and will continue to do so." The fact that the expenditure upon strong drink has been annually declining for several years supports the view which was adopted by the Chancellor of the Exchequer eleven months ago. In 1900 the British drink bill showed a decline of £1,0-10,031 upon that of the previous year; in 1901 the reduction was £3,142,953; in 1902 it was £2,238,426; in 1903 it nieunted extraordinarily to £5,054.5*6; and in 1904 it was actually £5,458,100 less than in 1903. The shrinkage, last, year was not so heavy as in either of the previous years, but it. was the very respectable total of £i,819,224, and we do not suppose that the most enthusiastic advocate of temperance dreams of expecting a continually progressive decline in the expenditure. Even if we conclude that a portion of the saving is really due to the pressure of hard times upon a. section of the community, we are probably justified in assuming that a large percentage of it represents a diversion of expenditure to healthier forms of indulgence. Notwithstanding the apparent advance in temperance sentiment—of which a phase lias presented it-self in the adhesion of a number of members of the House of Commons to the principle of abstention from the use of alcohol during the sittings of Parliament—the drink bill of the Mother Country is still rather appalling in its magnitude. It amounts annually to more than the total national expenditure. In four years the people of Great Britain spend on drink a sum which would he sufficient to extinguish the National Debt. There is, it cannot be questioned, abundant room yet for the exercise of the energies of reformers whe desire to see the nation become truly temperate.