LESS WHISKY DRUNK.

Waikato Times, Volume 99, Issue 16654, 20 November 1925, Page 2

LESS WHISKY DRUNK.

HIGH PRICE, POOR QUALITY.

According to figures in Harper’s Wine and Spirit Gazette, the present whisky consumption in the United Kingdom of a little over J. 1,000,000 proof gallons is less than a third of the consumption twenty-one years ago. During the first seven months of this year the total home consumption was 6,366,574 proof ga110n5—314,327 gallons less than in the corresponding period of last year.

“The long-headed distillers operating in the north of Scotland hove acted wisely,” the Wine and Spirit Gazette observes, “in deciding to reduce the production of spirits for Hie immediate future by 25 per cent.” In the export trade during Auguct there was an increase of 66,450 proof gallons iu shipments to Canada, but this was more than counterbalanced by a slump of 74,445 gallons in the shipments to Germany. The export figures for the first eight months of 1923 were 4,686,201 gallons, and for the corresponding period in 1924 and 1925, 5,455,023 gallons and 5,(112,432 gallons respectively.

A representative of a whisky firm informed, a London reporter that the decline in consumption is due to the high price, caused by the duty of 72s Gd. per proof gallon, and also to Iho poor quality of a great, deal of the whisky now sold. “The general standard of whisky has been getting steadily worse for many years,” lie declared.