TEMPERANCE STATISTICS.

Woodville Examiner, Volume 3, Issue 281, 3 September 1886, Page 3

TEMPERANCE STATISTICS.

(By C. M. Gray, ChristeLurch.) Going back as far into the history of the colony as it is possible to trace the statistics' of our drink consumption, I come to the year 1869. In that year the population numbered 237,'2-19, and the drink bill amounted to T"2,54] ,507. Last year the population totalled, in round numbers, 600,000, and the drink bill amounted to .£‘2,‘289,514. In order, however, to show the immense falling oil in the amount spent on intoxicating liquors, it only remains for us to adopt the population basis, and then see how the matter stands. Taking the average expenditure per head of the population —for every man, woman and child —and the sum approximates as follows : 1869 .110 10s Od per head 1885 3 16s 0d ~ ~

Difference TO 14s Od ~ ~ This result seems almost too good to be hue ; but it is true, nevertheless. The figures are correctly quoted and carefully revised, and will stand the test oi tiie strictest scru.iny. The lesson contained in the figures is

cheering one. It shows that steady, plodding, and persistent labours in a good cause, backed up with all the moral strength of a living example of the principles advocated, are bound in the end to make an impression on humanity, and accomplish the end sought to be attained.

The Auckland Weekly pays: —£'2,393,170 as the annual drink bill of the colony. One can hardly realise the truth of it, or what it means. "We sec such a wrangle in Parliament over a million or a million and a half loan, and we are solemnly told that unless we get it trade will he embarrassed, working men will be starving, and the place generally must go to the dogs. And yet nearly twice the amount we empty down our gullets every year ; and, not to put too fine a point upon it, we seem nothin" the better for it, and, taking it all together, we are certainly the worse. Indvidually we may like our little tipple ; but, if the question were asked whether would the aggregate of human happiness, of wealth, of health, be greater or less if that money were kept in hand and not spent in drink, there would be very few indeed who could honestly give anything but one answer. It may be said by some that this would throw hundreds out of

employment, but deduct say thirty per cent, of it to pay these pensions and put the question again, and there is probably no one in this colony who would not be forced, if he spoke the honest helit-1 of his heart, to admit that the aggregate happiness of the colony would he infinitely greater, and hat ‘its health as well as wealth would he promoted. If this is so, ii does seem a warrant for the Slate in its aggregate capacity to suppress the traffic.