THE DRINK QUESTION.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XVI, Issue 957, 9 July 1908, Page 21

THE DRINK QUESTION.

There is a very startling article in the “ Westminster Review ” for May by Mr T. Good, who writes on the experience of Glasgow and Sheffield.

In Glasgow Sunday closing is severely enforced, and the public-houses are closed at nine or 10 o’clock at night, and on some of the popular holidays they are closed all day. No music, singing, reciting, or games of any kind or description are permitted in Glasgow’s public-houses. And there are no barmaids! You are not allowed even to to look at a sporting paper, and if you laugh you are turned out! In Sheffield publichouses are open for six hours on Sun-

day, and three hours longer than Glasgow each working day. They have barmaids, music, singing, reciting, games, etc. The two cities are not unlike in being great industrial centres; one is Scotch, the other is English. Mr. Good maintains that the strict temperance system applied to Glasgow, as compared with the lax system in force in Sheffield has produced disastrous results. There are five times as many cases of drunkenness in proportion to the population in Glasgow as there are in Sheffield. He also asserts that as the net results of the increased stringency which began in 1905, it was found that the arrests on account of drunkenness showed an increase from 18.3 to 24.2 per 1000 of the estimated population. Mr. Good maintains that, bad as this is, secret drunkenness in the home, which does not lead to arrest, is much worse.