The Timaru Herald. THURSDAY, JULY 18, 1918. CONTROL OF LIQUOR TRADE.

Timaru Herald, Volume CVII, Issue 1658991, 18 July 1918, Page 4

The Timaru Herald. THURSDAY, JULY 18, 1918. CONTROL OF LIQUOR TRADE.

Mending- or ending is not an alternative to those who, in New Zealand as elsewhere, have been most active in their campaign against the liquor trade. "Set a great deal has been done to improve the liquor traffic and increase sobriety by regulation and education in New Zealand, and the record of control in Britain since the war began is an illustration of how much can be done when the object aimed at is to prevent abuses, without treating the ordinary man who knows when he has drunk enough as if he were a child or criminal. Regulations of the British Central Control Board, as its annual report points out, cover districts in which dwell about nineteentwentieiflis of the population of Great Britain, Ireland being exempted from the system'. The report states that the amount of I spiriijs available for consumption and the authorised standard barrelage of beer last year were 60 per cent, less -than in the previous twelve months. Owing, however, to the progressive dilution of spirits and the decline in beer gravities the bulk supply did not decrease proportionately, the reduction in the case of beer being under 30 per cent. The figures of convictions for drunkenness show that while public drunkenness had already by the end of 1916 reached a low level, which would have been thought incredible two years previously, there has since been a< further sxshtantial decline. This occurred mainly in the- earlier months of 1917, and a further improvement, though very slow and slight and not quite general, appears to be still in progress. The convictions in London and thirty-six leading British boroughs were 117,489 in 1914. For the next year they fell to 88,836, in 1916 the total was reduced to 52,783, and for the year ending- in March last it Avas no more than 30,216, one fourth of the total of the first war year. The decrea.se rniirht have been greater still, the report suo'o-ests. if supplies had been more uniform, drink famines at. particular .-periods having their effect in " queues and 'rush' drinking, with their attendant evils," when the shortage causing temporary prohibition became less acute. Even when allowance is made for the number of men at the war the figures quoted are remarkable, and that factor does not affect the women's convictions, which have fallen to one third of the pre-war total. In 1913, in the area which comes under the Control Board's regulations, 28,352 convictions of women for drunkenness were recorded. In the first year of the war, as the result of many women, thanks to separation allowances and munitions • earnings, having more money to spend than they had had before, the number rose to 29,835, but despite that influence it has fallen steadily ever since. In 1915 it was 25,929, a year later 16,072, and for last year it shrank -i- 9,415. " At the end of the three years' work of the Board," states the report, " steady and continuous, progress is still bein- made, though necessarily at a slower rate than in early days. The ground gained, including a reduction of public drunkenness, to

' •.'— { approximately one-quarter of its* previous amount, leaves a rolaf lively small margin for further) improvement, but there are ircA signs of reaction. Whether the! improvement achieved will permanent or temporary depends? on unknown factors, princinallyj an future legislation and adniin-l istration, but their experience suggests to the Board that there 1 is no such inherent difficulty iii the problem as to render impost * sible the permanent maintenance of the present level of sobrietv." To many people it will .seem that * not the least advantage of this 1 .system of reducing drunkenness 1 by earnest .regulation, as ovmosed to sudden and- total deprivation, mav be found in the result that; " there are no sia-ns of reaction. I '-