LIQUOR AND THE PEOPLE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXX, Issue 3585, 26 July 1912, Page 2

LIQUOR AND THE PEOPLE.

(.TO TIIE EDITOR.) Sir, —It is interesting to rood the opinion of the noted whisky distiller, Mi - Thomas Herd, on the drinking habits of Now Zealand, as given in your issue of yesterday. He speaks with authority on some aspects ot the question, hut lie <llll hardly he 1 eg,tided as an unbiassed observer so tar as the value of Xo-lioense is concerned. He says the trade of his firm with the Dominion lias increased bv leaps end bounds, and nowhere is the merease more marked than in Gisborne, lhi.s will hardly he regarded as a fact, for Gisborne to congratulate itself upon. According to the customs returns Poverty Bay paid 117.21:1 duty in 1910 for spirits alone, and in 1911 £l9,S<4. Tliis at the rate of lfis per gallon represents over 21 ,dOO gallons ot spirits for 1910 and 24,810 gallons for 1911, an increase of over 3000 gallons 111 one year. If Poverty Pay can consume 21.800 gallons of spirits in one year, it is not surprising that many even of those, in the habit of drinking should think it is time a halt was called. It is a lifctlo significant that the Customs returns show a reduction of 2400 gallons in the amount of spirits for Dunedin in the year 1911 compared with the previous year. Hr Herd s panacea for the social and moral evils, arising irom drink is ec identl\ good and plenty of it. No doubt (rood liquor decs loss harm than had. hut with tlie increasing knowledge of the evil effects of alcohol as alcohol, and the vast amount of misery mused I>V its use, some better remedy will have to be found than an increasing consunvvbion of even ''No. 10. I am, etc., _ Gisborne, July 2d-