NEW ZEALAND'S DRINK BILL FOR 1905.

Otago Daily Times, 27 April 1906, Page 3 (Supplement)

NEW ZEALAND'S DRINK BILL FOR 1905.

New Zealand's drink bill for 1905 has been calculated t)y Ibe Rev. Edward Walker, and is given below. For comparison the figures for 1901 are given over those of 1905. The total expenditure for the year was £3.120,705, as against £3.152,84!) in the previous year, being a reduction of £32,144 notwithstanding an officially estimated increase of 25,234 in the population. This represents a diminished consumption per head of 2; Sd, the first substantial variation by way of reduction since 1894; the .?lfeet of the vigorous temperance propaganda, throughout the inter: veiling years of commercial prosperity having shown itself simply in preventing the enormous expansion of the annual drink bill which Mr Walker holds would olhorwite have resulted. During the previous 10 vcars of commercial depression the drink bill per bead fell annually with slight variations from £5 16s in 1885 to £3 Is Id in im. By ISO 4it had risen again to, £3 10s lOld, and List year was £3 _& 2{d, or £17 0s Hid per household, taking fivo persons as the household average. Whether or not the whole of this 2s 8d reduction last year was due to temperance effort, including the restraint upon the trade of «, wholesome, fear in view of the local option polls, Mr Wnlker is not prepared fo afiirm; but. apart from extraordinary effort in that direction, regards tho- drink bill as indicating the dogroo of public prosperity or depression with the accuracy of a barometer. This means not that more or fewer people drink, but thai, the harrier drinkers consume more or less in proportion t° the money at their disposal, which also means that the bulk of the consumption is shamefully wasteful and mischievous. He inclines to the view that this time the reduction must lie credited almost entirely, if not wholly, to the temperance reform movement. In perusing the following calculations it must be remembered that while the expenditure is estimated upon the cost, nor gallon, as if the whole of the liquor were so purchased, the cost lo the consumer is enormously greater by the gins* or the nip, the form in which probably immensely the greater proportion of the whole i? bought. JANUARY 1 to DECEMBER 31 (inclusive), 1904. Coat per Cost to Head of Gallons. Consumers. Population. Spirits at £2 per gallon, 017,151; increase, 27.602 ~ ..£1,294,302 JEI 9 1 Wines at £2 per gallon, 120,101; decrease, 2404 .. . 240,902 05 4J Imported beer at (is per gallon, 203,550; decrease. 590 .. .. G1.C05 8 1 4J Colonial beer rI 4s per gallon, 7,780,400; increase, 231,200 1,657,280 1 15 0 £3,152,&10 til 10 10J * Estimated population, 839,776. JANUARY to DECEMBER 31 (inclusive), 1905. Cost per Cost to Head of Gallons. Consumers. Population. Spirits- at .£2 per gallon, 634,820; decrease, 12,325 .. ..£1.209,652 £17 9 Wines at £1 per gallon, U3,1G0; decrease, roil .. .. 226,320 i 11J Imported boor at 6s per gallon, 218,300; increase, 14,750 .. 65,490 1 5 Colonial beer at 4i per gallon, 7,796,240; increase, 9840 .. 1,550,243 114 02 £3,120,705 t£3 8 2J •Estimated population, 915,000. * The- population is calculated by taking tho mean of the (our quarterly estimates ismicd by the Registrar-general, including Maoris, but not including the population (12.292) of the Cook and other islands in the Pacific annexed lo tho colony in 1901. t The slight apparent excess in (Jicje totals is accounted for by unexpressed fractions of a farthing in the amounts standing over them.