INTEMPERANCE IN SWITZERLAND.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IX, Issue 457, 13 January 1882, Page 19

INTEMPERANCE IN SWITZERLAND.

At the annual meeting of the Swiss Society of Public Utility, held at the close of last month in Neuchatel, the growth of intemperance in Switzerland, as denoted by the augmented imports of wine and spirts and the ever-increasing number of public-houses and private distilleries, received considerable attention and was the subject of a special report prepared by Dr Roulet and several other members of the society. According to Dr Roulet 's calculations, the consumption ■of ardent spirits ia at the rate of seven-and-a-half litres per head per year of population, wbicb, as two-thirds of the population — women and boys under 16 — are ncu the habit of taking strong drink, is equal to a consumption of 21 litres (37. 46 pints) \er head of the adult male inhabitants of the country. The consumption of wine and beer ranges from 60 to 100 litres per head of population. la addition to the home production of wine and liquor, ail of which is drunk in the \ country, there is a considerable and rapidly-increasing import of foreign tviues and spirits, and there is every reason to believe that the p oduction of home-made spirits has greatly increased. These spirits, distilled, for the most part, from potatoes and damaged grapes, are coarse, fiery, and impure. Their natural colour is that of whisky, but they are often coloured with burnt sugar, sometimes with drugs, and retailed as " cognac, 11 at prices varying from 6d to lOd a bottel. Dr Roulet bought and analyzed several samples of this so-called cognac. The lighter coloured 6orts he found tolerably free from added impurities, but the dark-brown brandies were adulterated with substances which he described as decidedly poisonous. Although liquor is so much cheaper in Switzerland than in England and wages are so much lower, it is almost certain that Swiss workmen not only drink more, but spend more in drink than English workmen. Under the present Federal Constitution, cantonal authorites have no right to restrict the number of publ.c-houses but they may levy on them a special tax, and the number at presen taxed in the canton is 4121, equal to one for 115 of the population. The proportion i& 1879 was one to 135. It is assumed that every innkeeper, in order to live and pay bis way {including £7 in rates and taxes), must gain, at the very least, £108 a year. This implies an annual sale of wive, beer, and spirits of £324, which, multiplied by 4121, gives a sum of 21,432,000f. (£863, 280) as the expenditure of the people of Zurich in drink out of their own bouse, or, rather, of 151,680 of them, that being the estimated of habitual public-house customers. From these figures the 4J Afcwe Zuricher Zeituvg draw* the conclusion that, on a moderate ■computation, the average expenditure of a Zurich working class family on drink cannot be less than £12 8s 9d a year, a sum which represents a full fifth of its earnings. — Tunes Correspondent.