CHAMPAGNE AND THE WAR.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 14074, 18 August 1916, Page 7

CHAMPAGNE AND THE WAR.

. '.Forty or £0 years hence, when the great war has been, let us hqpe, over and done with for quite v a wnJe! itseffects will still .be' croppixig up m unexpected places ' (states ''a Sydney journal). At the , dinner table, for m Stttn.ce, •aat^at Lord Mayors' banquets. -\A£}£en the iibrd Mayor of. Greater Can.: berra for 1966 rises ,to propose* the- toast of the .-Emperor of All the Americas or of the Presidcnti.ofSiberiav^he sight- of the 1917 champagne, will remind him that there i& very little ol' it, arid that little not of .the best quality^fonuaccount less oi[ past convivialities than of the great xvar. For; it is said that the fighting .m. the Champagne country is going to <lo considerable injury toNj-he great wine industry, which is one Of the finest assets, of France. It is not only that considerable tracts of the wine-growihg districts are within tho German lines or under shellfire from the German guns, but; the needrf of the French Army, .-are taking up other parts as well as hindering the free^ movements, of. the .cultivators, and, their suppliers within the army zones. The first .vintage of th§- war came from vines which wera m their usual good shape, ,and. the wine was of high* class. Tho second, vintage,, that of last September, tho month of the French as 7 vanee, had enjoyed a year of exceptional weather, so that the vines could withstand tlie want of the usual careful cultivation,, and as a. matter of, fact, but for n- plague of the; cochyljs moth . that descended upon them .m thellast month of fruition, they would, it is said, ,haye produced a vintage of record quantity. But if one year of neglect might pass, a second is more seriotfs. .la.bor i s lacking, free communications', which assist : n tli3 distribution of neceseary treatruent, expert adyjeej supervision, and so on, are almost impossible,, and the vines arc being attacked by disease, fostered by this remarkable pp?n, wet winter, ijildew and. the rlrcad«l phylloxera., are sufficiently common to cause .grave disquief-, and it is to bo feared, that: the effects of the war will, be felt,for a. long timo m this rich country, a,nd the industry which .springs from.ij.