UNKNOWN

Waikato Times, Volume III, Issue 113, 25 January 1873, Page 3

UNKNOWN

Tiir most experienced topers, «ays the Melbourne Ttlryrapti, are lifinlh in a po-itum to «ay what they drink in Melbourne Frequent" .iet ious for damages instituted m the District Court a ( the instance of agents and patentees show that there h a 1u no amount of nutation going on, and fiat liq- O is frequent h sold liauii" no more tonnection with the tiling it is mjant'to mutate t'mii the label on the outside of the bottle gives it. Tlio innrkct has been Hooded wit i ' nle afa Carlisle," ''HennesVt) brandy," "Ste.uie's sarsaparilla," and other eoiniiounds, which have been dedired to be none of these T e Chinese, hovveior, nnpoit spir (s of, a more potent and deadj> kind than any otlier spirit >-ent to Australia. Tho\ have' a drug which is culled Chinese brandr,and whujh i^ imported b\ them, and sold w lthout licence. It is a brandy more destructive to the stomach, and liver, and brain of Europeans than any of that stuff wl^ieh a -virtuous Victorian Government draws a revenue from. The brandy is a spirit similar to rum m ajipe irance. imported, m bottle-* of TCiujlish manufacture, and these, protected by envelopes of English straw, with the peculiarity only that the- str.iw envelopes are worked transver>eh, instead of perpendicularly, as European stvaw envelope^ ;vrc. The brauilt i&a spirit prepared from rice, earn mjj w ith it no evidence of its hay injj been rectified An anil.v-iis shows that it contains as sold by the Chinese. 31) (5 in the 10(J-gid of proof spirit, and if ducted of it-> saccharine matter it shows five percent more. It al»o contains a large pcr-rentngc of oi^rirt, a'tl it> c fleet-, are more stupifvintj tl^iu mildly intoxicating It is taken by the Chinese in nm.ute do^es, and invariably forms with them a preliminary dram to the opium pipe They sell it, however, eheapl} , and main louni; Kuropeans ol both setes, imitate the Chinese habit in drinking it, imitate them onjy in that act, paving no regard to quantity. The result is a new tyj Qof drunkenness in young people which puzzles thoughtful magistrates, fills watch-houses and gaols, and is breeding a new . type of criminal amoug younger Europeans. The Chinese also import a spirit which they cajl gin, but which is pronounced by old Indians to bo very bxd arrack. It contains :W 9 of proof spirit, nncl is also largely mixed with opium. Its effects arc nyich mpro juloxicatjng than the branch, afthoucfh the stupor -which it induces does not la9t so loi\g, I nor docs it seem to have the serious after effects which arc^ invariably the result of tho other. Am examination of one qf tho so-called bottles of giu showed that it was, although elaboi ately got np, evidently bottled in Melbourne, in an old porter bottle, corked with an old cork, which hal previously done- duty in one of the quart bottles containing " Byass's porter," that name being on it, and enpil ailed with about half-an-ounce of resin, all of which unmistakeably show that the e-vil thing has been imported in bulk, and prepared for sale in Melbourix