OUR DRINK BILL.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 1904, 15 June 1892, Page 6

OUR DRINK BILL.

The publication in the ' New Zealand Gazette ' of the Customs returns for the last quarter of the financial year ended March 31, 1892, enables me to supply a statement of the amount expended on intoxicating liquors during the financial year just concluded. The information consists of the ] amount of the Customs revenue derived from the clearance of all intoxicating liquors intended for colonial consumption, together with the amount received during the year on account of colonial beer. The following table gives particulars of the various kinds of alcoholic liquors cleared for consumption, the quantity of beer on which excise was paid, and the computed total amount paid by the people in this colony who consumed the liquors. I have also, for the purposes of comparison, appended the totals for each year since 1881 : — Gallons. At £ Spirits .. 452,565 40s 005,130 Wines .. 111,569 40s 223,138 English Ale.. 237,807 63 71,192 Colonial Beer 4,823,520 4s 924,704 Total .. 5,424,961 2,124,164 Year. Gallons. £ 1881 .. 5,800,857 .. 2,533.677 1882 . 6,204,312 .. 2,658 091 1883 .. 5,678 860 .. 2,497,754 1884 .. 5,541,452 .. 2,394,176 1885 .. 5,475,762 .. 2,289,514 1886 .. 5,103,333 .. 2,180,356 1887 .. 5,017,191 .. 2.060,543 1888 .. 4,924,327 .. 2,040 901 1889 .. 5,256,549 .. 1,996,286 IS9O .. 5,466,346 .. 2,110,120 1891 .. 5,424.961 .. 2,124,164 Comparing the drink bill of 1891 with that of 1890, it showe an increase of L 14.044. In 1890 "the expenditure per head of the population amounted to Li 33s 7.Yd ; last year, despite the increase in the total of the drink bill, the amount was only nearly L 3 2s 9d. This sum stands out in pleasing contrast when compared with the expenditure per head in the United Kingdom, Victoria, and New South Wales. The completed returns for 1891 show the following results : — Victoria . . . . . . . . £5 14 5 New South Wales . . . . 412 3 United Kingdom . . . . . . 315 0 New Zealand . . . . ..329 Thirteen years ago, in 1879, 1 published the first colonial drink bill, dealing on that occasion with the year IS7S. The population of the colony in that year was 432,519, and the expenditure on intoxicating liquors amounted to L 2,586,095,, 586,095, which was equal to L 5 193 6d per head. Since then the population has increased to L 675.775, and the amount of the drink bill has decreased to L 2,124,164., 124,164. Supposing the drink expenditure to have kept pace with the increase of population, the total for 1891 would have been L 4,007,861 ; or in other words, whiist the population has increased to the extent of 243,250, the drink bill haa fallen L 461.931 below the total of 1878 With regard to the causes that have led to the decrease opinions vary considerably. Non-abstainers and "the trade" generally attribute the falling off to the curtailed spending power of the people, and slyly remind us that When the devil got sick, The devil a monk would be ; j When the devil got well j The devil a monk was he.

On the other hand temperance people are confident that the spread of total abstinence principles throughout the colony has a good deal to do with the changed habits of the colonists. Posßiblythe true solution of tbe decrease may be found to lie between the two exfreme3 — that the two causes combined are responsible for the falling off. But whatever the cause may be, there is no gainsaying the fact that New Zealand still continues to waste two millions too much on intoxicating drink. And now, in conclusion, hear what the 'Lancet' has to say, when commenting upon the British drink bill for 1890 :— " It is not our business to moralise on this expenditure. To us it means so much cirrhosis, Bright's disease, goufc, rheumatism, insanity, etc, — disabling employment, taking the pleasure out of the life of families, and bread out of the mouths of children."— C. M. Gray, in the ' Prohibitionist,'