ENGLAND’S DRINK BILL.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2518, 3 June 1909, Page 5

ENGLAND’S DRINK BILL.

Some recent statistics published in the “London Times” show that England's drink bill fell very considerably last year. The total amount spent upon boor, win© and spirits put together was over £6,000,000 less than in the year before, and allowing for increase of population, it was fully £7,500,000 less. This is an almost startling reduction, but before accepting the full satisfaction of the figures, we must remember that last year was a season of exceptional depression throughout the Old Country, and there is a stage of poverty below* which temperance becomes terribly compulsory. It must also bo borne in mind that, though the reduction was over £6,000,000, nevertheless the total amount spent on intoxicants of one kind or another reached the vast total of £161,000,000, which would bo enough to supply as many Dreadnoughts as toff most tho rough-going Imperialist could, desire say, a promising fleet of eighty capital ships. Discussing the figures tho “Daily News comes to the conclusion “that the reduction in the amount spent on drink a reduction which, has steadily continued for ten years—is very largely accounted for, not by bad trade, but by continued progress towards sobriety. The average drink bill for tlio United Kingdom still stands at over £3 12s per individual, and nearly £IS per family. It is a heavy waste that becomes stil* heavier when we are reminded that the families on which it actually falls are only two in every three of the entire population. This means that some six million families arc spending over £27 apiece in this extremely wasteful and disastrous way.”