A DRINK BILL

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVII, Issue 21, 25 May 1899, Page 6

A DR INK BIL L

ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, IRELAND, AND NEW ZEALAND

THE ' Annual Drink Bill ' of the United Kingdom, compiled by Dr. Dawson Burns, is not very pleasant readme for the friends of temperance reform. During the year lSiiS the people of Gre.it Britain and Ireland expended upon intoxicating liquors the ruui of £154,480,934 sterling, which (as the population w.jh officially estimated at 40,188,927) was equivalent to an outlay of £3 Km lo^d by each person, or £19 4s 4Ui by every family, reckoning five person's on an average to each family. The drink expenditure in LS'iS wa« two millions and a fifth in excess of the drink expenditure of I8!>7, which stood at £152,251, 723. The increase of population was evjmated at less that 1 per cent , but the increase in the national drinkbill was 1 i per cent. There was an increase on British spirits of £1,084,324, on beer of £8:51,21.), and on wine of £(587.217— a total of £2,602,'.)40 ; but bs there was a decrease on other spirits of £403,729, the net increase of expenditure was £2,1!)'.) 21 1. In England the consumption of spirits was 1(5,70*5,338 gallons ; beer, 56,697,995 gallons ; wine and other liquors, 2,(533, WHi gallons ;or a total of 76,097,329 gallons. In Scotland the figures were— Spirits. 4,380,276 gallons ; beer, 2,411,053 gallons ; wine and other Lquor-.. 274,250 gallons ; total, 7,065,579 gallons. In Ireland the consumption of spirits amounted to 2,712,88(5 gallons ; beer, 4,005,727 gallons ; wine, etc., 274.250 gallons ; total, (5,1H12.8<;3 gallons. These figures work out per head of the population as follows • — England, 241 gallons ; Scotland. 1 (jti gallons ; Ireland, \-~>l gallons. In comparing the expenditure in the three countries composing the United Kingdom we find that the English expenditure increased by £2,087,000, the Irish by £115.(501, whilst the Scottish drank loss by £4000. Scotland, however, holds the premier position for spiritdrinking, the consumption under this head in that country last year being £1 lGs lOd each, against £1 Is 7^d in Ireland, and I'Js Sd in England. The amount spent on beer and spirits per head of the population was— England, £3 13s 10d ; Scotland, £2 13i l()|d ; Ireland, £2 8s Id ; so that contrary to prejudiced opinion the latier is far and away the soberest country of the three. As to the drinking habits of the people of England and Ireland, Mr. Blake, M P., in the course of a speech delivered in the House of Commons in March, 1857, put

THE MATTER IX A NUTSHELL.

He said' — 'In 1893 the expenditure for beer in Brita'n was £88,(527,000, or £2 13* a head : in Ireland. £(5 2'.U uiio or £1 7s 2 t per head. Thus the Briton i-pends all but tw.cv a.s tunch im t> <>r as the Irishman. 1 ' Well, sir. w h.it about whiskey ' 'I li • v<\> nauuu' tor ppiri'H in Britain was £15.571,()U0, or -CI <').. p , r ) 1Ha(l lv j_ r , _ land, t(i,U4.(j(Hi, or £1 (>s <; 1 p ,. r head. Thus u.ik-Ii i,i,,r« was .pout per head on spirits in Britain than in Britain. So BntiiM p curved her superiority in both branches of this competition ; h.twn.' spent twice as much on beer, she took a good deal more M .irr.-, too : and then «ays something about Tri«h drunkard* 1 Tne [;, ,ren V m\fi* on both £4 2s ; the Irishman £2 13s Nd. 1 • I vontn. .- v, suggesr, th it it is not for Britrun to "cast n "tone," to pr-ieh tr<- -v* i|) t.-mper IT ,,> P and soberness as our cure.' Now, it is admitted thu intemperance is a great evil, and that indulgence in liquor U-a< s to a great wa-te of money, especially among the industrial clas»< i-, who (an ill afford it, but we might ask those who are continually pruxni" ;,h ,ut the progress made by Protestant countries, why n'ir, that the English people spend 50 per cent, more on intoxicating dr.u'v ihan the pc pie of Ireland— is this another sign of national ad wine ■•Jicn. ' NEW ZEALAM). It is interesting to compare the drink statistics of the United Kingdom with those of our own Colory. The consumption of bee' wine and spirits has been steadity on the decrease in New Zealand tor some years. In 1884 the beer consumed per head of the wholf> population was S'l2l gallons against 7-453 m 189(5; wine. 0-253; gallons against 0"133 ; spirits, 0 ;»23 gallons against 0 (505 gallons Taking the years 188(i and lN'.Hi, we find thu 1,57(5.2!)! gallons of beer, wine and spirits were consumed in the former year against 5.505,000 in the latter. This is an apparent increase in quantity, but then the population increased during the same time by about 21-5 per cent. At the same time a comparison of the convictions for drunkenness shows that drinking was not so prevalent in 189(» as it was eleven years previously. In ISSC. the number of persons convicted and sent to gaol for drunkenness was 1,077 ; eleven years later it had fallen to less than half that nuT.ber. Of course manycauses may be assigned, besides diminution in the drinking habits of the population, for this decrease in convictions. Still the falling off is so large as to give hopes, after making allowances for varying causes, that drunkenness is steadily on the decrease. Although our New Zealand drink bill is a great deal more than it should be. still it is satisfactory to know that drunkenness is not one of our predominant colonial vic?s. There is scarcely any part of the British Empire where one sees less of it than here. Drunkenness is an evil which flourishes best in certain surroundings. The poverty-stricken, over-crowded, ill-kept slums of large cities are hot-beds wherein it grows to perfection. Communities living an open healthy life, having good food, and well clothed and housed, like the people of this Colony, are not so subject to the blighting influence of this disease. Whatever else may bn alleged against the moral character of our rising generation, that ot drunkenness cannot. The majority of our convicted drunkards have been importations from the Home countries. The e\il was in their bloed, and transference to a new land was not sufficient to eradicate if. As the native-born population increases in this Colony m comparison with those who are not the drink bill will have a downwaid tendency, provided, of course, that we guard against tho-e agents— poverty! overcrowding, and bad food— which have been the iruitful cause of so much of it in the flome countries.