VICTORIA'S DRINK BILL.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 1818, 5 August 1891, Page 5

VICTORIA'S DRINK BILL.

Mr John Meison oontributes the following interesting letter to the • Age ' :—

The Government returns being now issued, it is possible to again lay before your readers the annual drink bill of Victoria. The account for 1890 is as follows—

The estimated mean population for last year being 1 115,600, the coat per head amounts to L 6 0? 7d. List year the figures were L 6,540,763 and L 5 18s sd, an increase of L 189.667 and 2s 2d respectively. The sums for last year were for — £ & a. d. England. .. .. 139 495 470 .. 313 0 New South Wales .. 4,009,500 ..458 New Zealand .. .. 2,1*6,138 ..340 It will thus be seen Victoria has the chief place. The cost of liquors in England is, however, not much more than half what it is in Victoria, while the quantity of alcohol consumed per head there is greater. The disparity is, however, most marked between New South Wales and Victoria. The former colony is content with some 11,700,000 gal of beer, while Victoria consumes about 21,500,000ga1. There are two features in connection with the Victorian Bill which, perhaps, should be mentioned, as they would appear to indicate that the increase is not quite so real aa it is apparent. They are — (1) That owing, it is presumed, to the taking of the census, the increase in the estimated mean population of tbe colony was 11,300 only, whereas in the two previous yearß the estimated increases were in each case more than 40,000 ; and (2) It would seem from complaints that have been published the sales of colonial beer have not been as satisfactory as anticipated, so that, although the quantity may have been made, it does not follow that it has been all drunk. In connection with this enormous expenditure, which, in comparison with the expenditure of other countries, is dreadfully high, ib should be remembered too that nearly half our people are females, that about 44 per cent, of the population *re under twenty years of age, and that about one third of our males are under fifteen years of age. The amount stated, nearly six and threequarter millions, is difficult to be comprehended. If it were in sovereigns, it would take 700 strong men to carry it away, and then each man would have more than 2001 b in weight, and more than 9,600 sovereigns. It would pay for twenty-eight exhibitions on the same scale as our last, and then leave almoti LIOO,OOO to the good. It would pay our account for defences, at the rats of our expenditure for 1889, for nineteen years, and then we should have L 90,000 in hand. The report of the registrar of friendly societies contains a number of interesting tables, etc., based upon the second quinquennial investigation by the actuary Mr E. P. Owen into the condition of our various friendly societies. From such investigation the following table has been compiled :—: —

It thus appears that had the mortality of all other societies been at the same rate as the two temperance societies there would have been, not 2,720 deathß, but 2,084 only during the five years, a reduction of 636, Or had the mortality of the two temperance societies been at the same rate as all other societies there would have been, not 315 deaths but 411 during the five years, an increase of 96. It will thus be seen that amongst a body of 58,014 selected persons, abstinence from strong drink may be claimed to have saved 96 lives, and that had the opportunity been given 636 more might have been saved — in all, 732 lives during five years. Surely, some day soon, it will be generally realised that the profits of our insurance societies ought as a matter of right to be fairly divided, then the teetotaller will obtain, in the reduced premium or otherwise, the real value of his temperate life, which now the general body of insurers reap the benefit of. On the basis laid down in the last Drink Bill letter, ifc appears to be probable that more than 2,50 ft deaths were brought about during 1890 by drink. The number of deaths from phthisis during 1889 was 1,571, and from typhoid fever 541, and of miaers during 1888, throngh mining accidents, 34. But a word or two as to the effects of drink bo far as crime ia concerned. On the 23r.' April last Mr Justice Webb, in sentencing a prisoner at the Sale Assizes, stated that drink "is the cause of nearly every orime." Almost the same day an English paper came to hand which published asimilar expression of opinion from Mr Justice Hawkins, .sitting at the Gloucestershire Assizes. Eighty per cent, of crime was estimated by this judge to be caused through drink. Our Charities Commission has been made aware that " the cause of poverty here is drink and self-indulgence. '' Last New Year's Day, so Mr John Wilsoia tells us, the great majority of the publicans, of Glasgow closed their houses under the impulse of the popular sentiments of the people. The cases brought before the magistratefa on the next day were only onehalf of what they were the previous New Year'B Day. In view of facts such as these here stated, and of facts which are within the knowledge of probably every one of your readers, and bearing in mind the continually recurring sad results arising from the wa3te t the loss, and the crime which are the inevitable consequences of the liquor traffio, does it not seem, sir, that the following words of Canon Wilberforce, spoken on the 16th March last, are Bober truth :—": — " V\ hen we fairly faoe the enormity of England's drink curse, when we see that it blasts our prosperity at home and blights our influence abroad, I say the language haa yet to be invented that will enable us to eps'A of it in temperate words."

No. of Galloi s. Prioo per QftllOD, Cost. Spirits, imported .. Spirits, Viotorian . Wine, imported .. Wine, Vie orian poor, imported . . W... \ .o orian 1,111.241 254,728 127,660 1,431,027 1,472,836 20,019,740 £8. d. 1 15 0 0 7 0 0 6 0 0 3 0 ! * 2,561,191 223,405 501,173 441.700 3.002,961 £6,730,480

S3 . ' si: S S" 3 ' Kumber of Death 9 During Quinquennium. 1 "3 CS 4J 2 g a 3 I 1.0. R. and Sons of Temperance (2 temperance societies) All other societies „ I Actual. Expected. 8,315.8; 315 440 49.698.3j 2,720 2,918 68,014.l! 3,035 3,358 71.54 93 36 i All societies . . 90.38