ALCOHOLOGY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 250, 28 February 1911, Page 6

ALCOHOLOGY.

DOES-IT PAY THE CONSUMER! (Published by Arrangement). The ordinary beer-drinker never thinks whether he is getting value for Ids mo-, ney when he pays down sixpence for his long beer; of course, if he were buying a coat or a chair he would, and very likely he would try to beat down the coat or chair seller in his price. In buying long beers it is different; it was never heard that the would-be consumer, tried to beat down the barman in his price. But, while few drinkers of beer give a thought to the price, fewer still know how very little thev are getting for their money. A little study of the .Official Year Book shows how many rgallons of beer are brewed in the Dominion, and also what amount the brewers pay in wages and for materials, therf a little sum sliows that a gallon of beer costs for material and labor 7.68 d, say eightpence, or twopence a pint. From this it is plain that even when allowance is made for the capital invested and the cost of retailing the profits must be very large-chiefly to the capitalist brew-ers-for there is practically no credit and no bad debts. But this is not all the badness in the bargain for the consumer Beer is sometimes called "liquid bread by those who defend its use so on that score it may be fairly be examined, and the question at the head of tins article be asked. Now, if beer be made from only malt and bops-it is not tor glucose and sugar and other things are med-it takes about six pounds of barley (good grain, too) for every gallon of beer according to an English authorty, and then if that barley be followed up through the various processes of malting mashing and fermenting, there is very little of it left in the beer When a gallon of beer is Analysed it is found to contain only about half-a-pound of solid matter, of which only a small part contains any nourishment. To this it may he replied that it contains alcohol, and ot this drug it may contain fromS to - o llllC es according to the skill of the brewer and the material he uses, only h ii ? ?L 0t and cannot word n f n d in an -r sense ° f the ttord Dr. Dwon, who is the latest auuionty quoted by the brewers, says ttt 2 P l r ?- Nts r afr °^ d l,s n ° evidence j that alcohol is a desirable substance for l the average man." What, then, in short, does the consumer get in his long beer? Sf,° ne O ? Ce ° f so!id of rom on 6 tf7 ater Part is ""nutritious ' even 7?r V™ ° UnCCS ° f a,Coho, < »hich s™ble»\JH CaMOt re S ard as "desuable and the rest is water. The beneficml part of the beer, the nourish hat the brewer tries his utmost to -et id of so as to have the beer clear. °I e used only malt and hops it would he harder still. It i s plain that New Ze a ! rand brewers can't use anything iLtTe quantity of barley that the" Engl si m^^V" o™' 0 ™' for In Imm IZ S 7? in the Dominion S ,-', JP 1)ons of beer. This on the English theory would need 1,170 530 bushels of barley; but the whole S only 1038,452 bushels, and out of thi* must be taken the dark grain unfit for malting, and that is a very larS pro portion, and what is needed for s°eed so loujr^ 1 "i noUn'the count y to do it, even with the 04(1 bushels of barley and 1020 bushels 1 malt imported. There is not snace enough. no into the matter fuh*Z any thinking man must see that it"i no or Lcneflcial expenditure of ms for the man whose means are limit- , and where comforts are needed at